Fort Union National Monument

The panel's first reason for the fort became a campaign within four years. After Moache Ute and Jicarilla Apache raiders killed fifteen men at the Fort Pueblo trading post on Christmas Day 1854, Colonel Thomas Fauntleroy led about five hundred regulars and New Mexico volunteers out of Fort Union. That spring his troops surprised a Ute camp in the upper Arkansas valley and killed about forty people. The Nuuchiu and Jicarilla treaties signed later that year were never ratified, and the Jicarilla waited until February 11, 1887 for a reservation of their own.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Fort Union National Monument 1851-1891 18 Miles Once the largest post in the Southwest, Fort Union was estab- lished to control the Jicarilla Apaches and Utes, to protect the Santa Fe Trail, and to serve as a supply depot for other New Mexico forts. The arrival of the railroad and the pacification of the region led to its abandon- ment in 1891.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Union National Monument — 12 mi
  Three forts in one prairie valley where the two branches of the Santa Fe Trail met: a log post, a star-shaped earthwork, and an adobe supply town that fed the army's wars.
• Montezuma Castle — 14 mi
  The railroad's turreted resort at the Las Vegas hot springs, burned twice in its first years, empty for most of a century, and now home to an international school.

More markers nearby

• Watrous — 4.5 mi
• Fort Union Arsenal — 11 mi
• Las Vegas — 12 mi
• Strike Valleys — 12 mi