Lancaster Platt Lupton (September 21, 1807 – October 1, 1885) was the son of William Lupton, Jr. (a New York City Lawyer). He attended
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
, graduating with the class of 1829. In 1835, Lieutenant Lupton was a member of
Colonel Henry Dodge's United States Regiment of Dragoons when they passed through the
South Platte Valley in what would become the state of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
. Lupton saw the potential for a successful trading post on the banks of the South Platte River. He resigned his commission and returned the next year to build Fort Lancaster, later called
Fort Lupton.
Lupton took Tomas, the daughter of an Indian Chief, as his wife. They remained married until his death in 1885.
Fort Lancaster operated as a fur trading post until 1844, when a particularly harsh blizzard caused the fort to close and Lupton moved his family south to an area near modern-day
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...
. Later, they moved to California during the
1849 Gold Rush. Lupton lived in California until his death in 1885.
References
Fort Lupton - Its BeginningAbout Weld County, CO
1807 births
1885 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
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