Fort Lowell

In 1866 the US Army established Camp Lowell near what was downtown Tucson. It was one of many, many camps established to suppress the Apache. The camp was moved about 10 miles to the northeast in 1873 and was renamed Fort Lowell. That site is about two miles from my house and is now a public park. The Fort closed in 1891, following the surrender of the Apaches.

The first picture is the main promenade of the Fort, called Cottonwood Lane. The original cottonwoods were planted by the Army and were irrigated from the nearby Pantano Creek. The trees in the picture were replanted about forty years ago. The original trees were allowed die after the Fort closed and the locals cut them down for their wood.


This is the original post hospital. The adobe walls are nearly gone due to the ravages of weather. The most substantial part of the remaining building is now covered with a tin roof to slow its decay. The wood flooring, doors and windows were auctioned to the locals when the fort closed.


After the fort closed in 1891, Mexican immigrants settled in the area, using the fort buildings as shelter. The area was known as El Fuerte, The Fort in Spanish. These pictures are of the Fort Lowell Cemetery, a one acre parcel located in the middle of a neighborhood.


The cemetery is still in use and is open to Los Fuertenos, decedents of those early Mexican families that came when the fort closed. The earliest graves are now unmarked and date to the 1890's, like the one below.






Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky