Fort Stanton (Washington, D
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Fort Stanton was a
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
near
Lincoln, New Mexico Lincoln is an unincorporated village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States. Description The community sits in the Bonito Valley between the Sacramento Mountains and the Capitan Mountains at an elevation of . The village is located ...
.


Army Fort

It was built in 1855 by the 1st Dragoon and the 3rd and 8th Infantry Regiments to serve as a base of military operations against the Mescalero Apaches. Numerous campaigns were fought from 1855 until the 1880s. It was established to protect Hispano and White settlements along the Rio Bonito in the
Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the Southwestern United States, southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as l ...
.
Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
, John "Black Jack" Pershing,
Billy the Kid Henry McCarty (September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders: four for which he was solely res ...
,
Pat Garrett Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (June 5, 1850February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and U.S. Customs, customs agent known for killing Billy the Kid. He was the Sheriffs in the United States, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Me ...
, and Buffalo Soldiers of the
9th Cavalry The 9th Cavalry Regiment is a parent cavalry regiment of the United States Army. Historically, it was one of the Army's four segregated African-American regiments and was part of what was known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The regiment saw combat d ...
all lived here. Confederate forces occupied the outpost in 1861, at the beginning of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. This U.S. military fortification was abandoned with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1896. The fort was originally established in part as the Mescalero Apache reservation. In 1873 the reservation was moved southwest to its current location.


Marine Hospital

In 1899, President
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
transferred Fort Stanton property from the War Department to the Marine Hospital Service, converting the military reservation to America's first federal tuberculosis sanatorium. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Fort Stanton was used as a detention center for German and Japanese Americans arrested as "enemy aliens," and 411 German nationals taken from the luxury liner '' Columbus'' in 1939 (officially recorded as "distressed seamen paroled from the German Embassy" since the U.S. was still technically neutral at the time of their capture). The "enemy aliens" were mostly immigrant residents of the U.S. who had been taken into custody as suspected saboteurs shortly after the U.S. entered the war, despite a lack of supporting evidence or access to due process for most internees. The 31 German American internees, labeled "troublemakers" by the Department of Justice, were kept separate from the 17
Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
(also deemed "troublesome" by authorities) who were transferred to Fort Stanton on March 10, 1945. These new arrivals were deported to Japan later that year. The hospital was closed in 1953.


Later history

In 2008, New Mexico governor
Bill Richardson William Blaine Richardson III (November 15, 1947 – September 1, 2023) was an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the List of governors of New Mexico, 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was U.S. ambassador to ...
announced plans to establish Fort Stanton as a living history venue, Fort Stanton State Monument, and funds to renovate headquarters, officers quarters, and stables."Governor Richardson Announces Fort Stanton Renovations"
(
PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
). Press Release, May 9, 2008.
In 2009, the area around Fort Stanton and Fort Stanton Cave was designated by the U.S. Congress as a National Conservation Area (NCA), with more than in order to protect a unique cave resource, Snowy River Passage in Fort Stanton Cave National Natural Landmark. Snowy River was discovered in 2001 by members of the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project. The new NCA, called Fort Stanton – Snowy River Cave, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Roswell Field Office. The NCA has over of multi-use trails for horseback riding, mountain bike riding and hiking. It is the venue of an annual
endurance riding Endurance riding is an equestrian sport based on controlled long-distance races. It is one of the international competitions recognized by the FEI. There are endurance rides worldwide. Endurance rides can be any distance, though they are rar ...
event that has grown to be 6 days long. The NCA is joined on its south and northeast boundaries by the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the
Lincoln National Forest Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Li ...
. In 2012, members of the Southwestern Region of the National Speleological Society completed a restoration project on the second floor balcony of Building #9, located on the Fort Stanton Quadrangle. In 2019, a team from AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps along with Fort Stanton Staff renovated and restored Fort Stanton's Hidalgo Building into a volunteer dormitory, began restoration on the historic school house, restored an original TB Hut, and expanded the hospital's current exhibit to include two new exhibits.


See also

* Escape from Fort Stanton *
Ruidoso, New Mexico Ruidoso (Spanish for "noisy") is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, adjacent to the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 7,679 at the 2020 census. The city of Ruidoso Downs and the unincorporated area of Alto ar ...
*
Capitan, New Mexico Capitan is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, located north of the Lincoln National Forest between the Capitan Mountains, Capitan and Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico), Sacramento Mountains at an el ...
*
Lincoln National Forest Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Li ...
* Battle of Mesilla (disambiguation) * Gallinas Massacre *
National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, New Mexico This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, New Mexico. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, New Mexic ...


References


Further reading


Sanitarium

* * * * * * *


World War II Internment Center

* * * * * * * *


External links


Friends of Fort Stanton historical page
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100917043713/http://aerc.org/Photo_Gallery/FS2005/cave/Fort_Stanton_Cave.html AERC.org: Fort Stanton Cave(slideshow) {{authority control Stanton History of New Mexico History of Lincoln County, New Mexico Museums in Lincoln County, New Mexico Military and war museums in New Mexico Bureau of Land Management areas in New Mexico Stanton Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, New Mexico United States Marine Hospitals Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico