Resurrection of Fort Lupton

By Arnold Hubert

Fort Lupton, Colorado, is a beautiful and friendly little farming
community of approximately seven thousand five hundred people
situated on US Highway 85, about twenty-nine miles north of Denver.
It is situated in an area not quite designated as in the foothills, yet
not far enough east to say its a plains town either (just somewhere in
between). Summers are Rocky Mountain blue sky gorgeous, with spring
temperatures ranging from seventy-five to over one hundred degrees in
August and September. Wintertime can deal out twenty-four to thirty-six
inches of snow or as little as twelve inches. There seems to be an area
bordered on the west by Interstate 25, on the east by US 85, and on the
south by Interstate 70, which is more arid year after year in more recent
times. Rainfall in summers seems to be minimal, so many farmers irrigate
their crops. The Fort Lupton area receives more than three hundred
days of sunshine every year. I guess that the abundant sunshine is the
main reason that I moved to Colorado in the first place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465335821

Arnold Hubert

I grew up on the Kankakee River in Kankakee, IL and spent most of my youth on the river, fishing, hunting, trapping and just having a good old time. After high school I joined the US Army and spent 9 years there ending up in Vietnam the last year. I retired at 62 years and moved to Colorado to see what I could do to preserve the image of the old west. That is how I met the South Platte Valley Historical Society, and this book was written in the memory of John T. Martin and his dream.

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Arnold Hubert.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011912085

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-3581-4

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-3580-7

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-3582-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a nonfiction book, and I hope I have not offended anyone who is mentioned herein. The characters mentioned in the context should be proud to have been a part of this adventurous exercise, and I hope you all feel this way.

The following persons are credited for the photographs displayed in this book: Arnold Hubert, John Everson, Jim Harris, Bill Taylor, Rosalie Everson, Theresa Hubert, Esther McCrumb, and Bryant Everson.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

101008

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 The Beginning

Chapter 2 Salvaging The Adobe Walls

Chapter 3 Getting On With It

Chapter 4 Appropriation Of Land

Chapter 5 Ready But No Funds

Chapter 6 Fifteen-Year Mark

Chapter 7 Bargaining

Chapter 8 We’ve Actually Started Digging!

Chapter 9 We Need Help!

Chapter 10 Furthering Progress

Chapter 11 A Time Of Change

Chapter 12 The Work Keeps Going On And On

References

Dedication

This book is dedicated to John T. Martin (July 2, 1917-February 23, 1997), whose profound interest and dedication to doing good for people, no matter who they were, should be noted here. Few people, it seems, have the inherent foresight to look ahead for the preparation of a plane for humanity and the good things it can bring to their lives. John T. Martin was such a man, and we miss him dearly.

PREFACE

History can be fun and it is more fun when one becomes involved in it, as Arnie Hubert found when he joined the South Platte Valley Historical Society. The society had purchased the land and laid the plans for an historic park centering around a rebuilt Fort Lancaster. Many people became involved, additional projects were undertaken, but building the fort itself remained an insurmountable task.

Someone had to raise a hand and say I will take charge of that fort project.

Arnie was the match firing up the Build the Fort Now campaign.

Once the rebuilding of the fort actually began, volunteers gave more and more of their resources—time, tools, equipment, furnishings, expertise, and most importantly, hours of their lives.

The fun and excitement of rebuilding the fort, and reliving its past, is back. Some early members of the organization who lost interest during the lull remembered the fun of being involved in history and rejoined with even more interest than they had before.

As they worked, the volunteers learned about history and about people-not only those who lived in the past but those in the present. They gathered together to share the same interest-restoring the history of an old trading fort for the people of today. They were building a fort, yes, but also a stage to make history come alive through the smell of a pine campfire, the sound of a bugle, the feel of a buffalo hide.

As we move toward the completion of Fort Lupton, we look back and appreciate all who dedicated hours to bring this history to life. We are grateful for the vision of those who looked at that bare patch of ground near the South Platte River and said There should be a fort here, and then, proceeded to build it, not once, but twice.

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

Fort Lupton, Colorado, is a beautiful and friendly little farming community of approximately seven thousand five hundred people situated on US Highway 85, about twenty-nine miles north of Denver. It is situated in an area not quite designated as in the foothills, yet not far enough east to say it’s a plains town either (just somewhere in between). Summers are Rocky Mountain blue sky gorgeous, with spring temperatures ranging from seventy-five to over one hundred degrees in August and September. Wintertime can deal out twenty-four to thirty-six inches of snow or as little as twelve inches. There seems to be an area bordered on the west by Interstate 25, on the east by US 85, and on the south by Interstate 70, which is more arid year after year in more recent times. Rainfall in summers seems to be minimal, so many farmers irrigate their crops. The Fort Lupton area receives more than three hundred days of sunshine every year. I guess that the abundant sunshine is the main reason that I moved to Colorado in the first place.

In 1959, while stationed with the US Army at Fort Niagara, New York, I joined the unit rifle team in February of that year. The hope was that during the summer and fall of the scheduled matches, I would be good enough to become a full-fledged member of the United States Air Defense Rifle Team and end up participating in the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. Well, I did all that successfully and found myself based at Fort Carson, Colorado, where I had the chance to see and smell the wonderful land that is Colorado with its beautiful Rocky Mountain range. It is a land of wonderfully fresh air and dominant sunshine.

After leaving the US Army in 1966, I had returned to Illinois where I was born and raised. I lived there until 1994 and felt like I needed something new and interesting to see and do, and having the desire to live somewhere else and just plainly bored, I decided to make the move to Colorado. So in May 1994, Theresa, my wife, and I sold the house and moved ourselves to Lakewood, just west of Denver, where we lived for six years. I had found work as an electrician early, and when I turned sixty-two, I wanted to retire and take part in something that would allow me to contribute to the preservation of the image of the Old West. So in June 2001, we put the house up for sale, and I went on an eight-hundred-mile journey searching for the perfect place to live. We finally decided on the little town of Fort Lupton, located about thirty miles north of Denver, Colorado, or approximately halfway between Denver and Greeley. Within a week of placing the house on the market, it was sold. I couldn’t believe it! Anyhow, Theresa and I moved to Fort Lupton after having a home built on the east side of town.

Shortly thereafter, I discovered that there existed an organization called the South Platte Valley Historical Society, the headquarters of which was located a little west of town along the South Platte River. Well, it didn’t take very long for me to truck over to the Fort Lupton Museum and talk to Nancy Penfold, the museum curator, to ask her about who to talk to, to learn more about the organization. She told me to go over to the historical park and look for Larry Thiesen, who worked at keeping up the grounds of the society. So I did that, found Larry, talked a bit, then went to work helping him with the tasks at hand. The next thing that happened was that I joined the South Platte Historical Society and went to work. A bit of historical background concerning Fort Lupton is as follows:

In 1862, Mr. William Winbourn came to Fort Lupton and was one of the town fathers. He was responsible for mapping out the town. He was also the first mayor. Mr. George Twombly came in 1863. He was the first pioneer merchant and helped organize the town. Dr. S. J. Hubbel arrived in Colorado in 1873 and in Fort Lupton in 1879 and was the town’s first doctor and druggist. Ella P. Frink arrived with her family in Fort Lupton in 1895 and started the Silver State Creamery and later the Fort Lupton Canning Company.

Rattlesnake Kate lived northeast of Fort Lupton about that same time and became famous when she killed one hundred forty rattlesnakes and made a dress from the skins.

Within the city limits of Fort Lupton lays a segment of land once occupied by a historic fur trading post named Fort Lupton. It was built and named by Lancaster P. Lupton on or about 1836. Some historians say it was built in 1837 or 1838. Lancaster P. Lupton was a first lieutenant in the US Dragoons during the period 1828 to 1836, and toward the end of his career as a dragoon—and with a court-martial looming for an earlier remark made by him—on March 31, 1836, the resignation of First Lieutenant Lancaster Platt Lupton became effective. Soon his lifestyle would change dramatically, from elite military officer