This large adobe fortress was built in 1848 by Ben Leaton to serve as his family home and trading post along the Chihuahua Trail that passed by here until it was supplanted by the Transcontinental Railroad.
Today, this site is operated as a regional cultural historical site by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
An interpretive sign outside reads as follows:
"WELCOME TO FORT LEATON
Many local families, including the Leatons and the Burgesses, lived in this large adobe structure. Over 100 years of occupation came to an end in the 1950s when a fire in the original warehouse brought down a portion of the roof. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department acquired Fort Leaton State Historic Site in 1967.
In 1848, Benjamin Leaton and Luanda Pedrasa built an adobe trading fort at the site hoping to play a major role on the new trading trail from Chihuahua City to San Antonio. Trade on the new Chihuahua road eventually moved more American and European goods to Mexico and silver from Chihuahua than the older Santa Fe Trail. Ultimately, the transcontinental railroad surpassed the Chihuahua road as the preferred trade route when it reached West Texas in the early 1880s.
Several rooms are furnished to represent the 1848. When Ben Leaton, Juana Pedrasa, and their three children Joe, Isabella, and William occupied the dwelling. Much of this structure is original. Since adobe wears away, most of the upper walls and roof replaced. The rooms are furnished with reproductions based on historical accounts the region."
Also from the interpretive brochure: (
visit link)
'THE EARLY DAYS
The story of Fort Leaton begins in Chihuahua City,
Mexico. There, Juana Pedrasa met Ben Leaton sometime
between 1833 and 1840. In 1848 the couple and their
three children moved to the La Junta District on the
Rio Grande, where Pedrasa owned land. They purchased
additional acreage and fortified existing adobe structures
into the square-shaped compound known today as
Fort Leaton, which served as a home, trading post on the
Chihuahua Trail, and private fortification. The Leaton
family and their visitors—explorers, soldiers, traders,
freighters, native Americans and Anglo settlers alike—
sought protection here against Native American raids and
attacks by borderland outlaws.
A handful of journal entries provide a glimpse of life
at Fort Leaton in its early days. In 1848, 70 men led
by John Coffee Hays traveled from San Antonio to the
Big Bend area on a mapping expedition. Today that trip
would take about seven hours, but in 1848 it took two
months! Imagine how welcome the relative safety and
comfort of Fort Leaton must have seemed after such an
arduous journey. The expedition purchased horses, mules
and other supplies at the fort.
The following year, Lt. William H.C. Whiting and party arrived
at Fort Leaton while exploring a military route between
San Antonio and Santa Fe. By this time Leaton owned two
slaves, employed eight to 10 workers and maintained extensive
farming operations. Whiting referred to the fort as “one of the
most important places on the Rio Grande” due to its position as
the lone defensive outpost and supply station along a 450-mile
stretch of river. He also commented on the exorbitant prices
being charged. Although Leaton was widely known as a
scoundrel, Whiting praised his hospitality. Leaton treated the
party to an enormous meal including stewed chicken with
chilies, roasted turkey, tortillas, frijoles, coffee and homemade
peach brandy."
And from the handbook of Texas Online: (
visit link)
"FORT LEATON. Fort Leaton (Old Fortin, El Fortín, Fortin) is on Farm Road 170 five miles southeast of Presidio in southern Presidio County. The fort sits on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande and what has been called the Chihuahua Trail. Fort Leaton was listed as the first seat of Presidio County in 1850. It was the private citadel of a Chihuahua Trail freighter and the first Anglo-American farmer in Presidio County, Ben Leaton. Leaton built on the ruins of a Spanish fort founded in 1773 and known as El Fortín de San José at La Junta. After El Fortín was abandoned in 1810, the structure stood unoccupied until Juan Bustillos took it as his home in 1830. By August 1848 Leaton had bought El Fortín from Bustillos and established Fort Leaton as his home, trading post, and private fort. During that month an expedition led by John C. (Jack) Hays to find a practicable road from San Antonio to Chihuahua via El Paso spent ten days at Fort Leaton.
The fort was built in an L-shape with the long side running east and west for 200 feet, parallel to the river. The measurement across the base of the structure was 140 feet. The walls were made of adobe bricks, eighteen inches long, five inches thick, and twelve inches wide. By laying the bricks crosswise, the builders made the walls eighteen inches thick. A stockade for animals was made at the base of the L. Large doors allowed teams and wagons to drive inside the structure. A crenellated parapet surrounded the rooms and fortified the structure.
Because of its desolate location and the constant threat of Indian attack, Fort Leaton offered much-needed frontier defense. The private bastion was the only fortification on the American side of the Rio Grande between Eagle Pass and El Paso before and during the building of Fort Davis (Jeff Davis County), and the United States Army made Fort Leaton its unofficial headquarters. Even after the completion of Fort Davis, eighty miles to the north, the army used the private fort as an outpost for military patrols. Military maps of the 1850s listed Fort Leaton along with official army posts.
There is no record of any Indian attack on Fort Leaton. The reason may be found in an accusation made by the Mexican inspector for the military colonies at El Paso del Norte, Emilio Langberg, who accused Leaton of trading guns to Indians for horses they had stolen in Mexico. Such illegal trading with the Indians might have gained him their favor and protected his fort from attack. Before any legal charges could be brought against him, Leaton died in 1851.
Leaton's farm, with eight to ten American workers and a gravity irrigation ditch, produced vegetables, wheat, and livestock to supply the fort's inhabitants and needy travelers. At his death his widow faced large debts. Eventually, the fort was acquired by John Burgess, who had held the mortgage. Burgess lived there until Leaton's son Bill killed him in 1875. The fort then fell into disuse. In 1934 and 1935 some restoration work was completed there under a government project. In 1967 the state acquired a five-acre tract around the old fort, and the partially restored structure became Fort Leaton State Historic Site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Leavitt Corning, Jr., Baronial Forts of the Big Bend (Austin: Trinity University Press, 1967). Virginia Madison and Hallie Stillwell, How Come It's Called That? Place Names in the Big Bend Country (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1958). Elton Miles, Tales of the Big Bend (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1976). Cecilia Thompson, History of Marfa and Presidio County, 1535–1946 (2 vols., Austin: Nortex, 1985).
by Julia Cauble Smith"