Fort Stanton

Built in 1855 to control the Mescalero Apaches, Fort Stanton was named for Captain Henry Stanton.

During the Civil War the fort was abandoned and burned by Union troops, before being briefly occupied by the Confederate Army.

Colonel Kit Carson re-opened the Fort for the Union in 1862, after it’s abandonment as a military post it was the first tuberculosis hospital in New Mexico and was an internment camp for German prisoners of war during WWII.

 

I think this was Kit Carson’s house.

Black Jack Pershing, the Buffalo Soldiers and Billy the Kid also passed through the Fort at various times.

The chapel

The Fort is also home to the only inland Merchant Marine Cemetery in the USA.

Each year the fort hosts Fort Stanton Live, when the fort is full of the sound of re-enactors and visitors.

Have fun, we are!