"Fort Garland -- Hispano Settlement in San Luis Valley
PANEL 1: FORT GARLAND
To protect the valley's Hispanic settlers against Indian attacks, the U.S. Army established Fort Massachusetts in 1852 near Blanca Peak, which towers just north of here. But the fort was too remote to be effective, so in 1858 the Army put up a new post - Fort Garland - a portion of which you see immediately across the road. Built largely of adobe, the new fort stood guard over the San Luis Valley and its people until abandoned in 1883. The Colorado Historical Society invites you to visit Fort Garland, which has been preserved as a museum.
THE SOLDIER'S LIFE
Fort Garland housed infantry and cavalry units. During the 1870s the famed Buffalo Soldiers - African-American cavalrymen - were also posted here. For all soldiers - and their families - life at Fort Garland was often dull, sometimes dangerous, but never easy. A civilian who visited the post remarked that despite its remoteness "frontier life suggests a poetic expansiveness, but to the soldier it usually involves a career of humdrum routine."
PANEL 2: SAN LUIS VALLEY
Hispanos and Settlement of the San Luis Valley
In the 1840s, Hispanos from New Mexico began moving north to farm on Mexican land grants here in the San Luis Valley. The communities they founded, beginning with San Luis in 1851, are today the oldest continuously inhabited towns in Colorado. Life in these settlements formed around placitas - a series of connected L-shaped, flat-roofed homes made of adobe or logs covered with adobe - a reflection of the southwestern architectural tradition. To support their crops and livestock, the settlers acquired Colorado's first known water rights, which date to 1852, and built the San Luis People's Ditch, the state's oldest operation irrigation system.
WOVEN ACROSS TIME
The Hispanic weaving tradition in the San Luis Valley reaches back to the sixteenth century when sheep were introduced to New Mexico. Through export and trade, Rio Grande blankets - those produced in New Mexico and here in San Luis Valley - soon achieved worldwide acclaim. Hispanic textiles are not only functional but also beautiful and a source of family pride. One San Luis Valley weaver says of her work: "It's part of my soul. I want to be proud when I point to a piece and say - I made that!"
GRAPHIC: Photos of men shearing and women spinning
Shearing the sheep and spinning the wool, c. 1937.
Colorado Historical Society
Graphic: Photo of Blanket
Rio Grande Blanket, c. 1865.
Colorado Historical Society
Graphics: Photo of settlers
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