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| Lonely outpost; the crumbling ruins of Fort Piute. Photograph by Scott Schwartz. All Rights Reserved. |
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| The old redoubt is kept in a state of arrested decay. Photograph by Scott Schwartz. All rights reserved. |
Whether establishing a “presence” there, in order to protect travelers from hostile Indians, or using its thousands of square miles for the training of its personnel, the U.S. military has been connected with the California
One such place isFort Piute Mojave Rd. Fort
Piute
One such place is
According to military
historian Col. Herbert M. Hart, USMC (retired), the outpost at Piute Spring has
its origins in a skirmish between soldiers and Indians.
The year was 1859. During that year, a Colonel William Hoffman
and the 60 soldiers under his command stopped for water at Piute Spring. Apparently deciding to make a stand against
some hostile Indians, Hoffman had about half his men shoot at the Indians,
killing roughly 20 of them. The rest ran
off.
Several months went by before
Major James H. Carleton and his 1st Dragoons came through this area
and established an actual post, which he named Fort Beale
Although called a “fort”, the
Piute Springs outpost was really just one of several desert “redoubts” – ie,
temporary fortifications that were established in order to protect travelers
along the Mojave Road
Not surprisingly, the troops
stationed at Fort
Beale Fort Beale California
When the Civil War ended,
however, the desert redoubts were abandoned.
Complaints from local settlers, and the fact that the Mojave Road was a
U.S. Mail route prompted the U.S. Army to re-occupy the posts in 1866. At this point, Fort
Beale was renamed Fort Piute
Life here was tough for the
soldiers. Aside from the dangers of
combat, the men lived in tents full-time (the fort itself was intended to
provide cover and a place to retreat to during combat) and ate all of their
meals outside. Desertions were not
unheard of.
The remains of the stone
blockhouse that was once Fort
Piute
