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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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FORT CHURCHILL
Nevada
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Location: Lyon County, on Nev. 2B, about 1 mile
west of U.S. Alt. 95, some 7 miles south of the town of Silver
Springs.
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Fort Churchill (1860-69), as guardian in west-central
Nevada of the Central Overland Mail and Pony Express routes, the
transcontinental telegraph line, and east-west and north-south emigrant
trails, was primarily significant in the history of western
transportation and communication. But it also protected mining camps,
ranches, and emigrants from the Indians and served as a supply depot for
military operations in Nevada. Its founding, 25 miles east of Virginia
City on the north bank of the Carson River adjacent to Buckland Station,
a trading post that had been established in 1859, was the direct result
of a Southern Paiute uprising in the spring of 1860. This had been
generated by a silver rush to the region the previous year and
culminated in the Battles of Pyramid Lake (May and June 1860). During
the Civil War, California and Nevada Volunteers replaced the Regulars
and considerably enlarged the post. The Paiutes caused no further
trouble in the Carson River Valley, though at times the fort aided in
quelling Indian disturbances in northeastern Nevada. In 1870, the year
after the Army abandoned the fort, the Government sold the buildings at
public auction.
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Ruins of officers' quarters,
Fort Churchill Historic State Monument. (Nevada State Park
System) |
Over the years the adobe buildings were either
destroyed or fell into ruins. By 1930 the walls stood only 2 or 3 feet
above ground. In 1935, after the National Park Service had supervised a
program of archeological excavation and historical research, a force of
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) laborers reconstructed a number of
buildings on their original foundations. The ruins of some 15 of these
structures comprise Fort Churchill Historic State Monument, which also
includes a small museum and the old post cemetery. In the 1880's the
soldier dead, many from the Indian wars, had been moved to Carson City
and San Francisco; the graves of Samuel Buckland and several other early
settlers remain.
NHL Designation: 11/05/61
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb17.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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