Nevada Weekend Part 1: Fort Churchill

Jenny, Bob, Steve, and I loaded our respective campers and headed out to explore some historic sites in Nevada. Our first stop was 68 miles from South Lake Tahoe at Fort Churchill State Historic Park.

Nevada’s first, largest and most elaborate military outpost was active from its establishment in July 1860, through an era rife with local and national conflict, and up to its abandonment in the fall of 1869. During this tumultuous, yet significant decade in the history of Nevada and the American West, Fort Churchill helped to bring about a semblance of Federal control over a quickly developing and resource-rich area that lacked effective government control.  The troops stationed at Fort Churchill protected California-bound emigrants, safeguarded the Pony Express and telegraph lines, fought battles and skirmishes with local Native Americans, protected area settlements, intervened in miner’s disputes and quelled any uprisings brought about by the Civil War. Today, the gaunt adobe ruins are reminders of an important era in Nevada's history.
No known photographs of Fort Churchill from its period of operation exist today. Knowledge of the fort's physical aspects is limited to written descriptions and one lithographic drawing. The drawing, shown above, depicts adobe buildings arranged in a square around the parade ground. Notice the absence of a defensive wall or barrier. Fort Churchill had no exterior wall since it was intended to be a regional base of operations and supply depot rather than a defensive post.
We explored the museum to better understand what lay before us.




By July of 1860, orders were given to establish a fort on the Carson River, and a site near Buckland's Station (more about Mr. Buckland below) was selected.
A large number of men were put to work on the construction. The buildings were to have stone foundations with adobe brick above. The adobe was obtained from the river bottom nearby.

Construction expenses mounted up quickly and the $75,000 allowance proved grossly inadequate. Many of the necessary materials had to be freighted from the Sierras or even the west coast. The freight bill alone was $26,500. One hundred mules, in teams of six, were employed to assist with the construction.
By autumn, Fort Churchill comprised 58 buildings, arranged in a hollow square one quarter mile across. Structures included barracks, six officers' quarters, offices, storerooms, barns, a hospital, the arsenal, and even a strong windowless jail.
A side note to this history lesson was that wildflowers were still growing on the grounds. Bob was a happy hunter.

The population of the Fort at completion was 337 men and 12 women. The total cost of building was estimated at $179,000.



Steve and Bob are standing in front of Laundresses' Quarters. Army regulations allowed for laundresses. The women who lived in this four-room structure provided essential, backbreaking laundry services for the men who valued "spit and polish". The Army provided living quarters and a daily ration for each woman, while the soldiers themselves paid for laundry services. Laundresses were often the wives of enlisted men. When rising construction costs threatened to eliminate the laundresses' quarters at the fort, the soldiers united to prioritize completion of this building.



The Post Cemetery was the final resting place for soldiers killed in local battles and those who died from exposure, illness, and hardship. In February 1885, more than 15 years after the fort's abandonment, the remains of 44 soldiers were removed and reinterred in the Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City, Nevada. They are listed as Fort Churchill's "unknown dead" since weather and time left their headstones unreadable.


One of only a few gravestones, Daniel Burier, was interred here in 1876, after the fort was abandoned. What an elaborate tribute to a man I could find nothing about.
Buried here is someone whose name does live on... Samuel S. Buckland and his family. A true pioneer, he settled here in 1859, and got busy. He began a ranching operation, established a station for the Overland Stage Company, and operated a tent hotel. He also constructed the first bridge across the Carson River downstream from Genoa.
During 1860, Buckland built a large log cabin and married Miss Eliza Prentice. In that same year, Buckland’s Station served as the assembly point for the volunteer units that took part in the Pyramid Lake War. It was during this period that Buckland’s served as a remount station on the famous Pony Express route.
In 1864, Buckland opened a store and dispersed goods to travelers, neighbors, and the soldiers at nearby Fort Churchill. He, his wife, and five of his eight children are buried here.

Today, a visit to Fort Churchill requires some imagination. Many buildings no longer exist, and those that do are in various states of ruin or arrested decay. While the daily sights, sounds and smells once associated with the proud military fort are long gone, the stories associated with the historic site will not be forgotten.

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