Fort Morgan, Colorado: Little Bighorn

Showing posts with label Little Bighorn. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Fort Morgan and Little Bighorn

Fort Morgan featured little in the Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s. The purpose of the garrison was to provide protection for emigrants to and from the gold fields of Colorado. The fort was never attacked, as such though there were a number of skirmishes on the prairies. The fort was abandoned in 1868, with the base of operations moving to Fort Laramie, Wyoming so little seems to link the fort with one of the major battles of the age – Little Bighorn. The link is limited, but it is there.

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Historic Overview

From my youth I brought with me only a vague impression of the history of the small town in which I was raised. Fort Morgan, Colorado, built on the site of a short-lived military fort in the heart of the great American desert; a fort that had never been attacked, never seen a battle. On little more than a whim I went in search of the fort’s operational dates (1864-1868), expecting this information would come readily to hand and that would end my curiosity - the fort once again fading into the midst of vague memory. To my surprise, I instead found a door opening to the history of the west.

The history of Fort Morgan will never rival that of Denver or glisten with the same gold dust of the mountain mining towns, but this little town on the plains of Colorado was central to the story of the Romantic west; it's story connecting with the major events of the age. Everyone has a history and every place is central to a story. What follows is the story from the land - of the land - on which Fort Morgan would rise.