Palmer Divide Research

Fort Washington (1868)

Also: the fort at Ben Quick's ranch

Forts, raids and the Indian warsHistoric or vanishedDouglas County

What we know

A log stockade about eight feet high around Ben Quick's house and barn on upper West Plum Creek, enclosing over an acre; a dozen or fifteen families sheltered there for about two months from August 1868; the men formed a cavalry troop under John A. Koontz (Dakan, 1940).

Where it was

Half a mile north of GNIS's Glen Grove School (historical): 'only about half mile north of the present sight of your Glen Grove school building' (Albert Dakan's letter of Feb. 23, 1940 to the Glen Grove teacher, Larkspur Historical Society binder 10 pp. 18-19). The point is the center of Sec. 13, T9S R68W, where Quick's later stone house stands; good to about half a mile. Marr: 'three miles west of the People's Fort' (the two points are 3.0 miles apart); Glenn Scott's trail map: 'SW 1/4 sec. 13, T. 9 S., R. 68 W.' (Larkspur Historical Society binder 1 p. 104), whose northeast corner this is.

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

See it on the map

Sources

Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.

Know more about Fort Washington (1868)?

Corrections, family stories, photographs, deeds, letters and maps are all welcome. Messages and files come to Michael Christensen privately; nothing appears on the site until it has been checked, and you'll be credited the way you ask.