Camp Weld

The bronze's "headquarters against Indians" leaves out the meeting held here. On September 28, 1864, the Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs Black Kettle, White Antelope, Bull Bear and others, escorted by Major Edward Wynkoop from Fort Lyon, met Governor John Evans and Colonel John Chivington at Camp Weld. Chivington told them to submit to the army at Fort Lyon. The chiefs left believing they had made peace, and Black Kettle's people camped at Sand Creek on that understanding. Two months later Chivington's troops attacked them there. A photograph of the council survives.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado This is the southwest corner of Camp Weld established September 1861 for Colorado Civil War volunteers. Named for Lewis L. Weld, first secretary of Colorado Territory. Troops leaving here Feb. 22, 1862, won victory over Confederate forces at La Glorieta, New Mexico, saved the Southwest for the Union. Headquarters against Indians 1864-65. Camp abandoned 1865. Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the City and County of Denver 1934

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — 1.6 mi
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 9.2 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 9.9 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 11 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• The Rocky Mountain News — 1.4 mi
• Elephant Corral — 1.4 mi
• Passing of the Street Car — 1.5 mi
• Silas S. Soule — 1.5 mi