The Third Fort Union

Unlike its predecessors, the Third Fort Union was carefully planned. Building materials included native stone, adobe bricks fashioned from soil dug from a field north of the fort site, and bricks manufactured in the nearby town of Las Vegas. Adobe walls were coated with lime fired in nearby kilns. Logs were hauled from timber reserves in the Turkey Mountains, and nails and window glass were freighted via the Santa Fe Trail. The new fort actually consisted of two installations, a large military post and an even larger Quartermaster Depot.

Watrous, New Mexico · United States