Fort Thorn (Doña Ana County, northwest of Hatch, New Mexico)

Doña Ana County, northwest of Hatch · New Mexico · Indian Wars, American Civil War

Quick BriefFort Thorn, originally Cantonment Garland, was established December 24, 1853 on the west bank of the Rio Grande northwest of present-day Hatch in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. It served to protect settlers and travelers against Apache attacks before being closed in 1859 due to severe malaria among the garrison.

Civil War

History & Significance

Named for 1st Lieutenant Herman Thorn of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, who drowned in the Colorado River in 1849 while serving as aide to General John Garland, commander of the Ninth Military District encompassing New Mexico Territory in 1853. The post was established by Captain Israel B. Richardson with a garrison of 3rd U.S. Infantry transferred from abandoned Fort Webster.

The fort was built of adobe bricks with an enclosing wall and featured a 3.5-mile acequia that brought water from the Rio Grande to irrigate farms and power a sawmill. Located near an extensive marsh, malaria became a serious problem and led to closure in 1859, though an Apache Indian agency continued to operate there from 1854 into the early 1860s under Dr. Michael Steck.

During the American Civil War, Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley used the fort as an assembly point for his 1862 invasion of northern New Mexico. Most of the fort site was washed away by a Rio Grande flood in 1889.