This cache is part of the larger Santa Fe Trail GeoTour. Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour. Containers on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail Geo Tour are military ammunition canisters, or Brochure-Holder boxes,with an identifying Santa Fe Trail Association yellow sticker on the top of the box, under the handle and the dark green geocaching.com ID is on the side of the boxes with the information that provides coordinates, who set the cache and who to contact for information. Each cache contains a logbook to sign, a variety of items that provide information about the Santa Fe Trail as well as swag items. If you are participating in the Passport activity, the code word is located on the inside of the box, on the top of the lid and is clearly identified as Code Word. Permission to set caches has been obtained. We ask that all cachers please respect all property at the sites where our caches are set.
Old Fort Lyon is less than 1 mile west of Bent's New Fort. Originally called Fort Wise, this fort was built by the Army in 1860. A treaty with the cheyenne and Arapaho Indians was signed here in 1861, but it was not honored by either side. Fort Lyon was deeply involved in the Indian troubles of this region during and after the Civil War. This fort was relocated in 1867, and today only a few foundations of the officers' quarters remain. Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts are still visible north of this site.
New Fort Lyon is 1 mile south of US Highway 50 on Colorado 183, east of Las Animas. Active from 1867 to 1889, this post replaced the Old Fort Lyon and helped to guard the Santa Fe Trail and later the railroad line. The fort has served as a veterans hospital, a prison, and is presently in use as a program for homeless veteran needing dependency treatment. Some of the original buildings have been remodeled for use as part of the hospital complex.
The Kit Carson Connection-- On May 23, 1868, famous Indian scout, trapper, guide and former U.S. Army General, Kit Carson, died at Fort Lyon. In 1867, he had resigned his commission in the army and moved his family to Boggsville, Colorado, about three miles south of Fort Lyon, as he had been appointed Superintendent of Indian affairs for the Colorado Territory. (From Legends of America.com)
Though his health was beginning to fail and his wife was pregnant, he conducted a Ute delegation to Washington, D.C. in early in 1868. His wife, Josefa, died in childbirth in April and with his health deteriorating even more, he visited Assistant U.S. Surgeon H.K. Tilden's quarters at Fort Lyon, and while there suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died at the age of 58.
The Kit Carson Chapel was moved from a location within the correctional facility complex in 2002. The stone building was first used as quarters for the post surgeon, who in 1868 was Dr. H. W. Tilton. The Chapel is open to the public and can be visited at the intersection of Gate Road and Cemetery Road, Fort Lyon, CO 81038, (719) 456-2948