White River Utes - Meeker, CO - Colorado Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The marker reads:

WHITE RIVER UTES

ATTACK AT WHITE RIVER
Nathan C. Meeker, U.S. Indian agent at the White River Agency, wanted the Utes to become Christians and farmers. But in September 1879 they were too preoccupied with hunger to care. The previous winter had been hard, and the government had not delivered on promised food supplies. Starvation stalked the Ute villages. Meeker, on the other hand, paid little attention to food. Instead, he plowed up the tribe's sacred horse track. When they objected, he asked for the army's protection. On September 29, 1879, the Utes responded to the threat of military action. At the White River Agency, one mile west of this point, they attacked and killed Meeker and eleven other white men, and they took Meeker's wife and daughter as captives. Coloradans shouted, "The Utes Must Go!" Two years later, the Tabeguache and White River Utes were removed to barren reservation lands in Utah.

BATTLE AT MILK CREEK
On September 29, 1879 - the same day Utes attacked White River Agency - 120 troopers under the command of Maj. Thomas T. Thornburgh splashed across Milk Creek, a stream fifteen miles north of here which marked the northern boundary of the Ute Reservation. Thornburgh had been told by Ute leaders that to cross Milk Creek meant war. Nevertheless, he deployed his men. The Utes immediately attacked, raking the soldiers with heavy fire. A week later, when the Ninth Cavalry (the famed African American "Buffalo Soldiers") and the Fifth Cavalry rode to the command's rescue, forty-two troopers had been wounded, and Thornburgh and ten men lay dead. Utes losses numbered twenty-three men killed. The Battle of Milk Creek was the Utes' last military stand against white encroachment.

Painting: The Thornburg Massacre, Robert Lindneux
Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Ute camp near Meeker, Colorado
Colorado Historical Society

Photo: Nathan C. Meeker
Colorado Historical Society

Group or Groups Responsible for Placement: History Colorado, Colorado Department of Transportation, and US Highway County or City: Rio BLanco Date Dedicated: 1997 Check here for Web link(s) for additional information: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
In your log, please say if you learned something new or if you were able to take any extra time to explore the area once you stopped at the historic marker waymark. If possible, please post a photo of you at the marker OR your GPS at the marker location OR some other creative way to prove you visited. If you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Colorado history, go ahead and include that in your log!

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.