Fort Junction

The Historical Society placed a marker for "Fort Junction" which was apparently really just a sod structure for early settlers and pioneers to defend themselves from hostile indigenous folks.

From the historical marker look about 30 feet to the East and 4 feet to the North for the actual cache location.

This area appeared to be highly prone to muggling so this is a micro cache with only room for a log. So, bring your own pen... it's the least you can do since this is such an easily accessible cache. You'll barely need to leave you car! How ironic... we sure have it easy today compared to the poor folks who needed to use the fort!

Hope you enjoy the local history lesson!

Here's what the Times Call has reported on this marker...

Oct. 20
It’s not clear exactly where Fort Junction stood

Dear Johnnie: About 15 to 20 years ago, before the construction of all the new fast-food restaurants on the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and the Colo. Highway 119 frontage road, there was a historical marker that marked the spot on or near that location for Fort Union. It is now gone.
Do you know what happened to the marker, and can you give an account of Fort Union? — Longmont Native

Dear Longmont Native: I believe that you are asking about Fort Junction , whose marker now sits on the southeast side of the interchange, at the west end of the park-n-Ride lot.
According to Times-Call reports, Fort Junction was built when residents in the area feared that an Indian uprising would follow the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. In that massacre, militia ambushed a peaceful Arapahoe and Cheyenne village, killing warriors, women and children.
But the Indian attacks never came, and Fort Junction was abandoned. Because the fort was constructed of sod, it deteriorated.
It’s clear where the historic marker stands now, but not so clear where the fort stood then.
In May 1994, before construction began on the new interchange, Department of Transportation experts conducted ground-penetrating radar tests northeast of the intersection. The radar suggested that beneath the surface was “a wall-like section, gate posts and a dumping area,” according to Times-Call reports.
But when archaeologists conducted a dig at the site, all they found was a leg to a chair that was determined to be less than 20 years old at the time.
As for other solid objects, that turned out to be shale.
So, construction went forward, and the marker was moved.
At the time, the Times-Call reported that research suggested that the fort stood a mile west of the confluence of the St. Vrain River and Boulder Creek. That would put it somewhere around the current Hajek Chevrolet south of Colo. 119.
Other historians determined that the fort stood on what is now the west side of the interstate.
The marker itself, however, states that the fort stood “200 feet due east of this site.”
However, cast at the bottom of the sign is “1939.” So that would be the same sign that once stood northeast of the intersection.
So, where was Fort Junction ? Likely somewhere within a couple of miles of that marker.

Nov.10

Local sleuths closing in on mystery of Fort Junction

Dear Readers: After Johnnie ’s column about Fort Junction appeared recently, three readers responded with information about the location of the fort.
Would it surprise you to learn that each had a different answer?
WN of Longmont told Johnnie that he knew the farmer who lived at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and Colo. Highway 119. That farmer had found on his land remains of what he believed to be the fort, right where the historic marker used to stand.
That location was the focus of a documentary produced in 1994, which has appeared on Longmont’s local channel.
I watched the 47-minute video, which follows the search for the fort’s remnants on that land. That’s the search I spoke about in my Oct. 20 column.
The video taught me how underground radar searches were conducted back then, and brought to mind what that part of Weld County looked like (no Del Taco or Starbucks or anything else). And, I was introduced to a “historian and author” whose divining rods directed her to multiple gravesites on the property. Further, she was able to determine whether the ground held the remains of a man or woman, based on the behavior of those rods. (Back and forth for a man; circular for a woman.)
However, exploratory holes at the site unearthed only a few broken bottles and a leg — a chair leg circa 1980.
WB of Longmont directed Johnnie to a Library of Congress map of Colorado Territory from 1862, which pinpoints Fort Junction between the St. Vrain River and Boulder Creek (labeled Coal Creek), just west of their confluence.
That would mean the fort was not built in response to the Sand Creek massacre (1864), was not where the historic marker says it was, and was not built when the marker says it was built.
So, where and what was Fort Junction ?
The most detailed response came from Paul Sorensen, Firestone’s mayor pro-tem and parks, trails and historical commissioner.
Sorensen has been studying Fort Junction for years and invited a CU doctoral student in anthropology to join him a few years back.
He believes the fort sat in what is now St. Vrain State Park, west of I-25 and north of Highway 119, and that the site east of I-25 is where the home guard mustered.
(Sorensen has provided drawings of what the fort might have looked like and has allowed Johnnie to publish those.)
“Since the fort was made of earth, it is almost impossible to find a part of the fort,” Sorensen wrote to Johnnie .
So, Sorensen is looking for clues to the fort, such as an aerial photo that reveals an anomalous rise in the earth — about 100 feet by 130 feet, the size of the fort.
He also has a hand-drawn map from a family member of the home guard “showing the location of Fort Junction when it was a postal stop.” That spot is east and slightly north of the location shown on the Library of Congress map.
So, Fort Junction might not have had a single location. It’s clear it didn’t have a single purpose.
Maybe Sorensen is onto something. And someday soon, he might dig up hard evidence of the fort’s original location. When that happens, watch for it on the news pages.