Fort Lyon 1 (Bent County, Colorado)

Bent County · Colorado · Civil War, Indian Wars

Quick BriefFort Lyon comprises two 19th-century military complexes in southeastern Colorado. The initial fort, also called Fort Wise, operated from 1860 to 1867, after which a new fort was built near Las Animas and remained active until 1897.

Civil War

History & Significance

In 1860, the U.S. Army leased William Bent's New Fort to use as a military outpost and headquarters for the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency, governing the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation. Initially named Fort Fauntleroy, then renamed Fort Wise for Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, it became Fort Lyon in 1862—renamed for Brigadier Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union general killed in the Civil War.

Colonel John Chivington used Old Fort Lyon as his staging post for the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. In 1866, ice flows and Arkansas River flooding damaged the old fort, prompting the Army to build a new fort near Las Animas.

During the 1860s and 1870s, it housed the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry. Kit Carson died in the doctor's quarters at the fort in 1868; a chapel built in his honor stands today.

The Navy took control in 1906 and used it as a tuberculosis hospital; in 1907 they established Fort Lyon National Cemetery. The Veterans Administration assumed management in 1922 and operated it as a psychiatric hospital. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, operated briefly as a state prison (2001–2011), and has since 2013 served as a rehabilitation facility for homeless individuals.