Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1900-07-11
A FORT.
Old San Carlos, a Historic Fort, to
be Abandoned.
SCENE or MANY INDIAN RAIDS.

When a company Of the Seventh in
fantry leaves Fort San Carlos. Arizona,
for Fort Logan, one Of the historic
frontier forts OF the Unsted States will
be abandoned and will revert to the
management of the Indian agent.
For many years san Carlos was the
hOtbed Of Apache troubles. When the
Apaches decided to leave their reser-
walton and swoop down into Old Mex
SEQ their trail lay close beside the fort
and the result was that soldiers at the
post in the early days saw plenty of
fighting. Most Of the fighting came
upon the Twenty-ninth, the Fourth and
Tenth cavalry regiments, as they
we're stationed there during the trou-
blesume years Of the Indians. II was
located at the Junction of the CHA and
San Carlos rivers. at the southern
corner of the Apache reservation, and
was known fifteen or twenty years ago
"a the most dangerous post in the west.
Ii was the time when the Apaches
were almost continually on the war
path; when a quiet week or month was
sure to be followed by a raid by the
Indians which called for hard riding
and hard fighting by the soldiers
APACHE KID" LIVED THERE.
Army officers say that there was
never a time for many years when the
officers and men In a Carlos were
not prepared for lighting. The raids
by the Indians became - frequent
that they came to be expected. II wa
. g. La.-H- - &c - IA 10 "a
! nrst ~seTgeantOf scouts. killed the chief
OF scouts and then fled to his people
Ia the mountains and began has career
Of crime and blood. He was the mos;
desperate of the Apache leaders and
the most blooduhirsty. according to
army officers. He was skilled, too. for
he had learned muc at the fort, and
coupled with this knowledge was his
natural craftiness n Indian traits
and his thorough knowledge Of every
trad IN the mountains.
Geronimo, too, gave the soldiers al
| Carlos plenty TO do years befor general
then Lieutenant Lawton. RAJ him u
earth and closed hrs career. In the
early eighties san Carlos was in the
midest OF it's hardest ighting and
brushes with the Apachcs were almost
OF weekly occurrence. The Indians
tried more than onc to take the fort
b. storm.
INDIAN AFFECTION IS FATAL
OF the stories told OF old a Carlos
one il Of Agent Gushing. OF whom the
Indians were really fond. The govern
ment decided to transfer him to an
other agency. The Indians heard oi
this, invited Gushing into the noun
tains to hunt and he was never again
seen alive. Onc story has 1t that bits
OF his body were returned to the fort
but the Apaches kept fragments OF
flesh and bone, determined that IL they
could not have him entire they woulc
have most Of him, and the white mel
could do as they pleased with the rest
The story is told as an example OF an
Indians idea Of friendship.
san Carlos was known, aside from II,
reputation Us a place of lighting, az
the hottest post in the United States
The average temperature in summer
there is 10 degrees In the shade. In
the winter IL W extremely cold. In hi;
book on western forts General McCool
speaks of the post as the only n In
America in which extremes meet.
The for was constructed roughly a
first, the officers living in adob'
houses, but the men were quartered ii
canvas houses. During the summe
the men were virtually confined Al
furnaces. Some years ago. however
the government erected adobe house
for the men and in other ways mad
the place more habitable, but II wa
always known aus ''the hell Of American
forts"
Five tribes OF Apaches come unde
the Jurisdiction OF the Indian agent a
San Carlos. They number 1902 an'
are divided among the Coyotero, Sai
Carlos, Tonic. Mojave and Yum'
Apaches.