The Greeley tribune., 1910-06-23

Parkman saw it. The light is the
intense dazzling light of the desert.
The riot OF color is startling. Rich
dark green of river bottoms and
trees. glowing yellows from exposed
sandstone of bluffs, a blue ribbon of
water rejecting the sky, in the back
ground purple and glttering white
of mountains, and over it all the
deep blue hemisphere of the sky.
Here the river runs over sand and
gravel and is as clear as n mountain
stream. The fort stands upon a
headland on the second bottom about
forty feet above the river. The site
was ideal; plenty of good pasture,
water, wood, game. not easily sur
prised easily defended. The size of
the fort was about 100 by 120 feet
with walls two feet thick. The walls
have crumbled long since and are
now but three or four feet high in
the highest places: they are per-
fectly marked. however, and the
bastions as opposite corners can be
easily located. The location of the
great gates on the east side can be
seen and the living apartments
against the inner south wall of the
fort can be determined at glance
The fort was built about 1896 by M.
St. Vrain. French trader and a
prominent man in the southwest
Through these very gates in 1872
and again in 1S43 came General
Fremont on his famous western ex-
pedition of those years. Fremont
was we'll known and able officer
of the regular army and fourteen
years afterward the first candidate
of the republican party for president
of the United States. General Ere
mont In the official report of his ex-
pedition in speaking of this fort
says:
I'VE parted with our hospitable
host after breakfast the next morn
ing. and reached st. Vrain's fort,
| about forty-five miles from ST. He
lena, late in the evening. This post
is situated on the south fork of the
Platte, Immediately under the
mountains, about seventeen miles
east of Longs peak. 1t is on the
| right bank, on the verge of the up
land prairie, about forty feet above
the river, of which the immediate
| valley is about six hundred yards
wide. The stream is divided into
| various branches by small islands.
| among which it runs with a swift
| current. The bed Of the river is
sand and gravel, the water very
clear. and here may be called
mountain stream. This region ap-
pears to be entirely free from the
lime stones and marls which give to
the Lower Platte its yellow and
dirty color. The Black hills lie be-
| tween the stream and the noun
tains. whose snowy peaks glitter a
fan
found Mr.. st. Vrain, who received
us with much kindness and hospi-
tality."
General Fremont visited the fort
again in 1S43 on his second western
expedition and in his later report
said:
About noon. on the 4th OF July,
we arrived at tn fort, where Mr..
st. Vrain received us with customary
kindness. and invited us to join him
in a feast which had been prepared
in honor Of the day.
Our animals were very much
worn out, and our stock of provis-
ions entirely exhausted when we ar
rived at the fort: but / was disap-
pointed in my hope of obtaining re-
lief. as l found 1t in a very impov-
erished condition; and we were able
to procure only a little unbolted
Mexican flour, and some salt, with
a few pounds OF powder and lead.
AS regarded provisions. it did not
much matter in country where
rarely the day passed without seeing
some kind of game. and where it
was frequently abundant. It was a
rare thing to lie down hungry, and
we had already learned to think
bread luxury: but we could not
proceed without animals, and our
own were not capable of prosecut-
ing the journey beyond the noun
tains without relief"
Fort st. Vrain was also visited
by Francis Parkman, the noted his
torian. in 1876 during his western
travels described in his now famous
book The Oregon Trail. Parkman
at that time was enroute from Fort
Laramie to Pueblo with one or two
companions; after they left Crow
creek the Indians gave them a great
deal of anxiety. Parkman in speak
ing of Fort St. Vrain says:
"At noon we rested under the
walls of large fort, built in these
solitudes some years since by NJ.
st. Vrain. 1t was now abandoned
and fast falling into ruin. The walls
of unbaked bricks were cracked
from top to bottom. Our horses
recoiled in terror from the neglected
entrance, where the heavy gates
were torn from their hinges and
flung down. The area within was
overgrown with weeds. and the long
ranges of apartments once occupied
by the motley concourse of traders.
Canadians and squaws, were now
miserably dilapidated."
Parkman's Oregon Trail is now
classic; it will live as long as
English is spoken in America and
these few words alone will preserve
the memory of Fort st. Vrain
through the centuries. AS one stands
within the ruins of these old RateS