Living History event at Fan original US army post 100 miles north of Los Angeles

[Tsalagidave]

Fort Tejon is an original US army post 100 miles north of Los Angeles.  It saw a lot of history in the early formation of Southern California and is one of the few places where you can make yourself at home in the original buildings. The living history program covers the Dragoon era of the 1850's and the Civil War (namely 1864).

Here are some nice photos on my social media post along with a few videos.  I did not narrate it but instead, chose to just shut-up and be a fly on the wall. Hope you enjoy it.


I have posted a photo album of the event here. There are 63 photos: https://www.facebook.com/pg/FAINmagazine/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2299168040115448

...and there are some videos here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/FAINmagazine/videos/?ref=page_internal

[Tsalagidave]

Here are some attached photos of the event.

[Tsalagidave]

Additional views of the post.

[Tsalagidave]

Here are more scenes of the post.

[Tsalagidave]

Here are scenes of the Officer's quarters and cookhouse.

-Dave

[Major 2]

I've had the pleasure to do living history at several sites such as that Fort several times....

Jefferson Barrack,  St. Louis , Mo.
Ft. Washtia , Durant,  OK.
Ft. Clinch, Fl.
Ft. Taylor, Key West Fl.   
Westville , Lumpkin, Ga.

Always great time, especially when the 20th century crowd leaves at closing, and you and your pards settle into the evening.
the candles glow, the fireplace crackles the mood surrounds you like a favored blanket...

Shinning times !   

[Tsalagidave]

Well said Major.  Thanks for that.

-Dave

[Pay Dirt Norvelle]

I did some Civil War reenacting at Ft. Tejon back in the mid 1980s.  It is a nice place.

[Oregon Bill]

Dave, congratulations on having the guts to wear clashing plaids, as was probably the reality! Sorry to see all that Oregon rain down there.
Many of the forts here in New Mexico, having been made of adobe, are partially to fully melted back into the mud from whence they came.  Thinking of Fort Union and Fort Selden, where Douglas McArthur was a little boy in the 1880s. We have a nicely intact Fort Stanton up on the Rio Bonito. I need to pay a visit.

http://fortstanton.org/

[Tsalagidave]

Thanks Bill,

Fortunately, I love the rain. We were getting so little of it in California for years that people come out and video record storms, especially electric storms. A lot of the California adobes have been well preserved. A few survive near my new home in Arizona as well. I'd like to do more events like this in period buildings. I really need to see the sights in New Mexico as well.  Do you have any pictures of previous events at the NM historic sites?

-Dave

[Oregon Bill]

Dave,  I am sorry I do not have any images to share.
Here is a Web site for Fort Union, which I found especially striking because the local clay from which the adobe was made was very nearly the color of milk chocolate. Have heard there is almost nothing left of Fort Selden north of Las Cruces.


https://www.nps.gov/foun/index.htm

[Tsalagidave]

That is a great site.  I can't wait to see it. I would love to build up a ruin site like Maricopa Wells into a fully functional historic site.
There are so many adobes out there waiting to be either built or restored.

-Dave

[Tsalagidave]

Here are a few more pictures of Fort Tejon.  I followed an account of a civilian teamster right down to the modified surplus army greatcoat.

[Tsalagidave]

Here is another good one taken during breakfast.

[Yeso Bill]

I too have no pictures but have always had an avid interest in the early forts. 

Ft. Sumner from here is about as close as anywhere else.  Old Ft. Sumner was an adobe fort built on the east bank of the Pecos.  I was at the Monument / Museum one day and ask the manager Gregory Smith if it would be possible to raise funds, obtain a grant, locate the original foundations and restore part of the old Ft.  In 1908 (I believe) a flood melted / swept the remaining houses and ruins away, leaving hardly a trace.  Gregory said that there were no foundations.  The government was in such a hurry to build it that the adobes were laid on the ground. 

The fort buildings were purchased by Lucien Maxwell (famous for the Maxwell Land Grant)  and he roofed over the old original flat, dirt roofs on some of the better buildings.  In the picture below, the house in the center was the Officers Quarters and that is the house that Maxwell moved into and it is said that Billy the Kid was killed in the closest corner room. 

The Pecos River has eaten 3/4 of the ground that the house stood on and a low mound now exists where the front of the house was.

Speaking of the flood.....the flood also covered the old ft. cemetery up, washing away the graves.  When I was a kid, (1961) Lincoln County sued De Baca County for the remains of Billy the Kid.   The proceedings were held in Ft. Sumner and for a quiet, rural New Mexico county, this was a big deal and big news.     Testimony was given in court that due to the flood, they didn't know where Billy the Kid was actually buried and no one else did either.  In 1962 a Federal Judge agreed and that was that.  That fact sure hasn't been advertised.   

Billy

[Tsalagidave]

This is great insight on Fort Sumner Billy. Are there any surviving original structures at all or are they all rebuilt?

-Dave