The Plaza

Deep cleaning fort with boxes and furs in the plaza.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit

This open area is typical of southwestern architecture and was the center of activity within the fort. Lieutenant Abert gave the plaza dimensions of 91 ft. north-south by 66 ft. east-west. The German born naturalist Frederick Wislizenus who visited the fort in 1839 wrote of seeing "many barnyard foul" here. Perhaps the best description of this general area and it's busy inhabitants comes from the 1846 narrative of Lieutenant Colonel St. George Cook who found it "...excessively crowded; a focus of business and curiosity...here were many races and colors, - a confusion of tongues, of rank and condition, and of cross purposes!"