The first Fort Union was established in July 1851, a few miles north of where the Santa Fe Trail split. Fort Union is located approximately eight miles northwest of present day Watrous, in the northeast section of New Mexico. Fort Union had been constructed by troop labor with little lumber, mainly poorly made adobe. The soldiers were too stubborn to ask the native people how to make adobe the correct way. Instead, they decided to take a shot in the dark, and make up their own recipe for adobe. Obviously, the fort walls, roofs and anything made of adobe q

uickly eroded. The conditions were so bad that the soldiers preferred to sleep on the ground outside, and risk being bitten by a rattlesnake, rather than sleep on their bed in their quarters. The fort was infested with deadly diseases such as small pox, measles, cholera, and dysentery, along with body lice. By 1860, something had to be done very soon and that is when the second Fort Union starts to be constructed. Today nothing remains of the first fort except the known location.

Today, Fort Union has been a National Monument since 1954 and is open daily to the public. People can walk about the second fort and see the raised humps from the star shaped fort. Sixty- five percent of the third fort is still intact, which is the largest amount of original structures out of the three forts. Fort Union was used so much, the majority of the visible ruts along the entire Santa Fe Trail are within miles of Fort Union.

Th

Some topics in this essay:
Fort Union, Fe Trail, National Monument, Utes Indians, fort union, Santa Fe, santa fe trail, fe trail, santa fe, fort fort, third fort, earth wall, bigger fort, southwest fort, fort third,