New Mexico Entertainment

Store Houses: Fort Craig was never designated an official supply depot but it often served as a central location for disbursement of supplies to other posts.   The supplies at the post, as well as its strategic location, were of utmost importance to the Confederate plan to "live off the land" during their march north in the New Mexico campaign.  Their inability to take the Fort and its stores, even with superior performance on the field of battle, spelled the beginning of the end of their hopes of securing New Mexico, the Colorado gold fields, and the gold fields and ports of California.  The two, large, "bomb proof" store houses were built prior to the civil war, while the smaller one was completed in 1866.  The floors were excavated approximately six feet below present ground level, which presumably added some measure of cool storage.  Small tracked trucks were used to stock and remove stores.   The outside, above-ground, adobe brick walls were buttressed with dirt removed from the interior.  Both the outside roofs and interior walls were covered with jaspe, a locally made plaster.  The quantity of supplies that could be stored here was massive.  In 1865 the Quartermaster reports show 400,000 rations on post and, in 1868, 100,000 pounds of rice from these stores were sold at auction.

April 2000

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