Fort Carson History
 

Fort Carson's Historical Setting

The land on which Fort Carson is built was never the permanent home of any Indian tribe, although many tribes--among them the Utes, Commanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Arapahos and Sioux--did live here from time to time. Other tribes, such as the Pawnees and the Jicarilla Apaches, frequently hunted in this region. Except for the Utes, these tribes came from east of the Rockies. They had been gradually pushed west by white settlers. In the early 1700s, the Ute Indians occupied the Rocky Mountains and the South Park region, traveling the Carson area to forage and hunt. Other tribes moved to the Carson area, but then migrated south to the Arkansas River. Evidence of the different tribes can be found in the petroglyphs and pictographs, arrowheads, pottery fragments, camp sites and Indian burial sites found on the Fort Carson reservation. The decline in the Indian population in the fort area came in 1861, when the government made a treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapahos. The tribes, according to the treaty, would give up some 80,000 square miles which included what is now Fort Carson. The land would make up part of the new territory of Colorado.

In exchange, the tribes were to receive $450,000 to be paid in 15 yearly installments. Reserved for their use was a tract of land along both sides of the Arkansas River and a portion of their southeast Colorado holdings. This treaty attempted to settle land ownership, but violations by both sides led to a war of terrorism through most of the 1860s. The United States, engaged in a Civil War, could not spare the troops needed to enforce the terms of the treaty. Meanwhile, settlers in the Fort Carson area fortified their ranches and retreated to Fountain or Colorado Springs to escape Indian attacks. By 1869, hundreds of U.S. Cavalrymen were in the region and most of the Indians left. Further contact with them by white settlers was sporadic.

In 1873, the first stage road to cross Fort Carson was built. It carried passengers and light freight loads from Denver to Canon City. Discovery of gold in Colorado and the need for better and faster routes to Denver led to the building of the stage route. The demand for transportation was so great that stages began running day and night, stopping only long enough for a change of teams and for meals. Outlaws plagued the lightly protected stages and "traffic jams" were often created along the route by grazing herds of buffalo. A major stop on the old route was the stage station of Glendale, located one-half mile outside the southwest boundary of the Carson reservation at the junction of the Red and Beaver Creeks. Most of the station was destroyed on a rainy night in June 1921 when a dam on Beaver Creek broke and a wall of water swept through the stage stop.











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