Last updated: June 13, 2024
Place
Main Corral
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit
The archeological study of the rear corral was frustrating because no evidence appeared that correlated with contemporary sketches. Excavations in 1964 revealed a wall that had once crossed here. As 20th Century agricultural use had obliterated nearly all historic grade, very little cultural material was uncovered.
The sketches of James Abert and George Bent both show the corral extending nearly flush with the fort's outer wall. Abert provides the dimensions as approximately 175 ft. east to west at its longest point, and 6 ft. high. Abert found the corral wall "...planted with cacti, which bear red and white flowers...." Matthew Field wrote that "...four hundred animals can be shut up in the corral," while Lewis Garrared let his horse "in the corral behind the fort to chew dry hay."
Included in the Abert sketch are nine small squares in the corral, while George Bent shows only two; in the Bent drawing these represent "snubbing posts." In perhaps the most telling description, fort partner Ceran St. Vrain wrote in 1847, "Outside the principal enclosure, and joining it on the west, is an enclosure...erected for...protecting our animals from the Indians."
The sketches of James Abert and George Bent both show the corral extending nearly flush with the fort's outer wall. Abert provides the dimensions as approximately 175 ft. east to west at its longest point, and 6 ft. high. Abert found the corral wall "...planted with cacti, which bear red and white flowers...." Matthew Field wrote that "...four hundred animals can be shut up in the corral," while Lewis Garrared let his horse "in the corral behind the fort to chew dry hay."
Included in the Abert sketch are nine small squares in the corral, while George Bent shows only two; in the Bent drawing these represent "snubbing posts." In perhaps the most telling description, fort partner Ceran St. Vrain wrote in 1847, "Outside the principal enclosure, and joining it on the west, is an enclosure...erected for...protecting our animals from the Indians."