Francisco Fort Museum

Francisco Fort Museum


One Block and 150 Years Away!!

306 S. Main St.
POB 263
La Veta, CO 81055

Contact:

719-742-5501

Email Us
director@franciscofort.org


Hours: 
Memorial Day Weekend - Saturday - Monday 10am-4pm
June 1st - Labor Day - Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm

Free admission for Memorial Day weekend

Website - 
www.franciscofort.org

We are a Blue Star Museum


Francisco Fort Museum is nestled at the base of the  Spanish Peaks, in central southern Colorado. The original adobe fort built in 1862, displays artifacts and collections from the Historic Huerfano County region. Exhibits of Native American  traditions, Hispanic legacy, settlement, ranching, coal mining era and MORE!


Francisco Fort Museum includes the National Historic Francisco Fort Plaza located in the town of La Veta, Colorado, at the base of the Spanish Peaks of southern Colorado. Opened in 1990, the museum is operated by the Huerfano County Historical Society with a mission of 
preserving the history of the area.


Scenic Byway itinerary:
Short Walks, Long Views - a 3-Day Itinerary on 3 Scenic Byways

Francisco Fort La Veta, CO

The Story of Francisco Fort:

In 1862, Colonel John M. Francisco (1820–1902) decided to settle in the Cuchara Valley in what is now Huerfano County, Colorado. Cuchara Valley includes the Cucharas Pass and the Highway of Legends (Colorado State Highway 12). In order to create a place of commerce and to protect himself and other settlers from attacks by Native Americans, Francisco and his French Canadian colleague, Henry Daigre (1832–1902), built a four-sided adobe fort and plaza. The Plaza, which is part of the Francisco Fort Museum property, was designated a National Register of Historic Places on October 23, 1986 as listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Colorado. According to the Fort's museum, "the Francisco Fort Museum is a historic site with buildings, structures, artifacts and collections. Francisco Fort Museum serves as an educational facility which shall carefully select, preserve, care for, exhibit and communicate the natural and human history of Huerfano County and the adjacent region," and whose mission is, "to provide quality educational opportunities and programs for the engagement and enjoyment of patrons, community members and visitors."

In a 1954 World-Independent article (07/27/1954), "La Veta was founded in 1862 by Colonel John Francisco, then about 42 years old, and Henry Daigre, then about 30. The two men had spent ten years in the army fighting Indians...they decided to settle down. They chose La Veta, a beautiful level piece of ground in a wide sweeping bend of the Cucharas River. Col. Francisco had secured 1,700 acres upon which this scion of one of the first families of Virginia agreed to erect a fort which was to protect [people in the area from Indians, although] the nearest neighbor was some 20 miles away. Francisco and Daigre had been army storekeepers at Fort Garland. Francisco opened a store in Pueblo and built the first house of any size. In 1862 [the two] again joined forces and in partnership built the fort and a house and began to farm at La Veta....Within a few years they were raising bumper crops on a thousand acres, and both had become wealthy. They sold lots to whoever wanted one and the settlement grew."

In 1876 the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad laid tracks through Huerfano County, over La Veta Pass and into the San Luis Valley . During this work the railroad platted the town of La Veta.

In 1990 discussions in the preservation of the historic site began as the condition of the adobe buildings was deteriorating. The preservation efforts included the plaza and its 1880s saloon, the Ritter School, a blacksmith shop, hornos (adobe ovens), and a mining museum. Financing for the preservation efforts were covered by the Colorado State Historical Fund under the efforts of the Huerfano County Historical Society and the town of La Veta. 

Mr. Ben Folgerberg, editor for History Colorado, wrote an article in 2003 that expounds on the historical significance of the Fort and how it continues to contribute to the culture of the area, "Fort Francisco Museum's staff and volunteers educate schoolchildren, tourists, and locals about the region's past through exhibits and through the structures themselves. In addition to interpreting the plaza area-which includes the original 1862 buildings-the Huerfano County Historical Society (HCHS) oversees a 1880's saloon, the Ritter School, a blacksmith shop, hornos (adobe ovens), and a mining museum.

By examining a textbook collection of projectile points in the fort, students learn how Native Americans inhabited the region for hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years prior to Col. Francisco's arrival. They learn that authorities established the area's first post office at the fort in 1871, naming it Spanish Peaks for the two high mountains that dominate the landscape. Sometimes that name recalls stories about seventeenth and eighteenth-century Spanish military expeditions sent from Santa Fe to expand what was once part of a global colonial empire. Students learn that Spain, and later Mexico, encouraged settlement on this New World frontier by giving large expanses of territory to individuals representing groups of families. Col. Francisco and Henry Daigre received permission to settle on portions of the former Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant from the original grantees. Visitors leave the fort with an appreciation for the region's continuous and overlapping occupation by indigenous peoples, Spanish explorers and soldiers, Hispanic settlers, and farmers, ranchers, miners, and businesspeople." Read the entire article at: 
Ben Folgerberg, History Colorado

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