Big Business for New Mexico

For many of the years between 1851 and 1891, Fort Union was the greatest economic powerhouse in the New Mexico Territory. A single Army officer controlled the huge Fort Union Depot, some 400 acres of storehouses, granaries, offices, shops, corrals, stables, haystacks, and woodpiles, from the Quartermaster Office, a four-room building where the post commander also had his office. Three civilians and five soldier clerks handled invoices, vouchers, returns, letters, receipts, bills of lading, and inventories to manage the constant arrival and dispersal of supplies. Decisions made there affected life and operations on military posts from Colorado to the California border, as clothing, blankets, harness, wheels, shoes, grease, and many other necessities were shipped into the depot and distributed to forts across the Southwest. Supplying the troops depended on thousands of Army mules, and every year Fort Union's chief quartermaster bought tons of locally grown corn, oats, flour, and beef, thousands of cords of firewood, and over 2,600 tons of hay and straw. This heavy military spending changed the local economy from barter to cash, and the upper Mora River valley became known as the breadbasket of the Southwest, with ranchers and farmers building many flour mills along the Mora River to grind locally grown wheat into flour for Fort Union.

Watrous, New Mexico · United States