Fort Garland, Colorado

Fort Garland was established in eighteen fifty-eight in the San Luis Valley, then part of New Mexico Territory, to protect settlers from Ute raiding and to maintain order on the frontier. It replaced the earlier Fort Massachusetts six miles to the north, which had proven too exposed and difficult to supply. The fort's most famous period came when Christopher Kit Carson served as commandant from eighteen sixty-six to eighteen sixty-seven, commanding troops from the First New Mexico Infantry and Cavalry.

Carson negotiated with the Utes, including Chief Ouray, during his time there. He left the army in eighteen sixty-seven due to illness and died the following spring. The fort was decommissioned in eighteen eighty-three.

Today the adobe structures are preserved as a state museum.