FORT UNION Administrative History

Figure 7. Fort Union Hospital in 1939. A visitor's car parked nearby.
Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.

One incident finally started a widespread movement for the establishment of Fort Union National Monument. On June 17, 1949, E. N. Thwaites of a Las Vegas radio station called a local resident (Mr. Walter), indicating that on June 20, the Union Land and Grazing Company was going to raze Fort Union. Quickly passing among local citizens, this news prompted Boaz Long, director of the Museum of New Mexico, and his wife to inspect the ruins the next day. They did not find anything unusual except some tourists' cars struggling to get through the muddy route. Once back in town, Long made half a dozen calls without getting any worthwhile information. [34] On June 19 Long repeated the process with no luck. Other people spent the day in search of Roger Reed, who had received a contract from the company to backfill all cisterns and wells in order to prevent people and cows from falling into them. When they finally found him, they asked him to suspend action until the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce met on June 20. Although no record showed Reed's response, the action did take place. Louis Timm, Reed's employee at the time, later recalled that he and other workers filled in all cisterns and wells, and toppled the weak walls and twenty chimneys. [35] Outraged by this action, people in Las Vegas saw the urgency of preserving the ruins of Fort Union.

With a strong will to save the historic site as well as ranching interests, local citizens took the issue to the Las Vegas-San Miguel Chamber of Commerce. On June 20, 1949, board members of the Chamber of Commerce, in regular session, voted to seek aid from the federal government and the state of New Mexico. They also voted to pay the cost of purchasing iron gratings to cover open wells and cisterns on the land. The next day their decision made headline news in the Las Vegas Daily Optic. [36] With a copy of the paper in hand, Lewis F. Schiele, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, lost no time in writing Clinton P. Anderson, U.S. senator from New Mexico, explaining the current situation of Fort Union and expressing his concern over past destruction. Schiele urged the senator to take steps necessary to encourage the government to acquire the site. [37] E. N. Thwaites, newly elected chairman of the Fort Union National Monument Committee, took the opportunity on June 22 to write Andrew Marshall, treasurer of the Union Land and Grazing Company, telling him that the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the New Mexico Historical Society, and the Order of Masons were interested in preserving Fort Union as a historic site. Thwaites wanted Marshall to cooperate with local groups and hoped the company would participate in a new round of negotiations. [38] The actions taken by the Chamber of Commerce, which headed this committee, began a renewed campaign.

Sending a copy of Schiele's letter to the director of the National Park Service, Senator Anderson invited the Park Service to cooperate with the local campaigners. The Park Service's response was quick, enthusiastic, and favorable. Washington asked the Region Three Office to review its files on the project and to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. In compliance with this request from Washington, regional director M. R. Tillotson assigned the task to Dr. Erik K. Reed and Milton J. McColm. They went to Las Vegas to discuss the current situation with Schiele. From him they learned that Roger Reed, local manager for the company, was antagonistic toward any idea that would open Fort Union to the public. On August 17, 1949, they visited the ruins and found that "considerable further deterioration had occurred since 1939-40." [39] In the report Erik Reed and Milton McColm concluded, "the situation is evidently hopeless...." [40]

The situation back east was not much better. While Thwaites was waiting for Andrew Marshall's reply to his letter, U.S. Rep. Antonio M. Fernandez of New Mexico informed him about Marshall's tactics in Washington. Fernandez revealed that although Marshall had not written to Thwaites, he had written to fellow congressmen from his home state of Massachusetts, asking them to oppose any effort to create a national monument at Fort Union. [41] At this point Marshall and his company had the upper hand.

Despite these unfavorable events, New Mexicans continued fighting for their cause. In 1949 the Masonic lodges of Las Vegas and Wagon Mound held their annual meetings at Fort Union for the first time since it closed in 1891. This initiated an annual pilgrimage to the fort. The largest one was in September 1951 when the Masons celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fort Union. More than three hundred people toured the ruins of the fort and enjoyed a barbecue. [42] "This celebration," Preston P. Patraw, acting regional director of Region Three, commented, "gave evidence of deep local interest in and support for the Fort Union National Monument project." [43]

During the same period, from 1949 to 1951, some people pushed for a state monument at Fort Union. Boaz Long first sold his idea to the New Mexico State Tourist Bureau, thinking the state could expropriate the site at a cost of $12,000. [44] He received support from both local citizens and the Tourist Bureau. By 1951 the movement for the preservation of Fort Union had gained solid ground in the state.

On August 13, 1951, more than 21 years after the first legislative attempt to make Fort Union a national monument, U.S. Rep. John J. Dempsey of New Mexico introduced a new bill (H.R. 5139) in the 82nd Congress to authorize the establishment of Fort Union National Monument. [45] The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives asked the secretary of the interior for his opinion. On August 30, Secretary Oscar L. Chapman, in his letter to the committee chairman John R. Murdock, recommended that the bill be enacted immediately. The hearings were held on May 29, 1952. At this time objection to the proposed legislation came from the owners of the Union Land and Grazing Company, who lobbied to block the bill. Influenced by Andrew Marshall, the committee felt that "action should be delayed until full consideration could be given to certain safeguards the owners desired." [46] Like the previous legislation, the bill died in committee.

On the home front, New Mexicans constantly pressured the Union Land and Grazing Company. Lincoln O'Brien, president of New Mexico Newspapers, Inc., bragged he could influence Marshall, now treasurer of the company, because he was a personal friend. After a few letters to Marshall, it appeared that O'Brien was as good as his word. On October 12, 1951, Marshall made a visit to New Mexico. Following an aerial survey of Fort Union, O'Brien flew Marshall to Santa Fe, where they met with Preston Patraw, acting regional director, Hugh M. Miller, assistant regional director, and Erik Reed, regional archeologist and historian. [47] At the meeting Marshall told them that "the Union Land and Grazing Company did not want to appear uncooperative or obstructive...." [48] The company was concerned that "a road-way would seriously interfere with the circulation of the range cattle and an influx of careless tourist would greatly increase the hazard of grass fires." [49] Although Marshall came to Las Vegas to meet with the representatives of the Park Service in February 1952, he remained unmoved in his opposition. For a year negotiations over the Fort Union project stalled.