Fort Union: 1866

During the late 1800s, Fort Union was the largest United States military base within 500 miles in any direction, with nothing bigger from Kansas to California. For 25 years, this frontier-era Army post functioned as a federal government-run small town where hundreds of soldiers and civilians lived and worked. Each year thousands of travelers and traders passed through Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail. Military custom and doctrine divided this isolated community into three separate and often competing commands: Regular Army infantry and cavalry officers ran the Post, Quartermaster officers commanded inside the Depot, and Ordnance officers operated the Arsenal about a mile west of the sprawling complex. Historians call this compound the Third Fort Union. The first fort lasted only 10 years, the second, a rough earthwork, was used only during the emergency of the early Civil War years, and the third fort was the largest and longest-lasting Army facility built here.

Watrous, New Mexico · United States