Historic Fort Stanton in Southern New Mexico

Fort Stanton has been at the
epicenter of New Mexican 
History since 1855. 







This military outpost was built to control the Mescalero Apache in the region and protect settlers.

Early in the Civil War Union troops abandoned the Fort, setting it afire before they left.  A rainstorm put out the fire and Confederate soldiers destroyed the fort before leaving in 1862.  Lieutenant Colonel Kit Carson (best known as a Frontiersman) took command and Union troops kept it until 1865 and the end of the conflict.

Fort Stanton was rebuilt.

Officer's Quarters

There was competition to supply goods and cattle to Fort Stanton (a major economic engine in Southern New Mexico).  In 1878 the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween rivalry became violent.  The death count was mounting in the Lincoln County War...  Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney) was in the area and joined the conflict.

Troops were sent from Fort Stanton
to support the Murphy-Dolan faction.

Barracks/Dining Hall &
Protestant Chapel

Inside the Barracks

Suppression of  Mescalero Apaches, led by Geronimo, in the 1880s included Buffalo Soldiers (African American Cavalry Regiment).

The Fort's Administration

Building

 Indian Control Operations ended in 1896 when Apaches were sent to a Reservation and the Fort was closed.

Fort Santon's mission turned to

 healthcare when it became a

  Merchant Marine Tuberculosis

 Hospital in 1899.

The Hospital

It was expanded as the number of patients grew.






Nurses Quarters were built to
accommodate the increasing
numbers of staff.






A total of five thousand patients were sent to Fort Stanton.  Family members settled nearby, increasing the region's population.

The Catholic Church

Fifteen hundred TB patients died and are buried nearby at the nearby Maritime Cemetery.  This medical mission ended in 1953.

The Community House has
displays of Fort Stanton's
other missions....

The Civilian Conservation Corps

used Fort Stanton as a work camp

during the Great Depression

in the 1930s.

German Merchant Seamen were sent to the Fort in after scuttling the German luxury liner, SS Columbia, off the coast of Virginia in 1939.

Because the USwas not at war
with Germany, the Seamen were
designated "Enemy Aliens," &
interred at the Fort.






After the US declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941, their legal status changed to Prisoners of War.  Seventeen Japanese-Americans Internees were held at the Fort during World War II.

Following the closure of the Merchant Marine Tuberculosis Hospital in 1953, Fort Stanton was used as a State Hospital for the Developmentally Handicapped until 1995.  For a few years, a Minimum Security Women's Prison operated here.

The Fort's place in history was recognized when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.  Surrounding land, including the Maritime Cemetery, was added in 2000.  In 2007 Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish declared Fort Stanton a State Monument.