Fort Halleck was established on July
26th, 1867 to protect both the California Emigrant Trail as well as the construction
of the nearby Central Pacific Railroad.
The location was named for Major General Henry W. Halleck who was the
commander of the military in the region at the time. Using both the title of Camp Halleck and Fort Halleck over
the years, Fork Halleck was also tasked with supporting issues concerning local
Indian matters. The Fort closed its
doors in December of 1886.
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| Present day Fort Halleck site. Photo by Author. |
Today,
little remains of the Fort. Unlike some
other Army installations, Fort Halleck was not kept for its historical value or used
in some other fashion. A major force
behind this was its location, remote from the railroad it was to protect. Even now there isn’t much around the sight of
the old fort.
My interest
in Fort Halleck sprang from research I am conducting into the life of an
ancestor who served a potion of his Army life there.
The first step
in my research was to identify when my ancestor was assigned to the post. Using the Returns from Military Bases
database on Ancestry dot com, I established he arrived there on April 24th, 1869. His regiment was there also. From these same records I learned he
commanded the fort for a few weeks each in June and October/November of
1870. He left Fort Halleck in December of
1870.
Other
genealogical information suggests one of his children was born in Nevada, and
inasmuch as Fort Halleck was the only Nevada post my ancestor was assigned - juxtaposed to the his son's birth date - makes this local significant.
The next
step in finding Fort Halleck, was an open source research review. What already existed concerning the history
of the post? Here Google is your friend,
but not your only one. I established a
computer based file for this task and started collecting interesting
information. For the most part I was concerned
with historical demographic data. I
found enough to complete the task, but was also surprised at how relatively little information there was. This told me much of the memory
of the fort has long ago passed. Beyond
the history, I also found some interesting - all be it less useful - social
data. Apparently the fort was an
economic driver in the area and this pushed for the post remaining longer than
it likely should have. In fact, Army
personnel stationed at Fort Halleck often questioned the need for this remote
post. It nevertheless remained into the
mid-1880s.
Wishing to
visit the present day site of Fort Halleck, I was pleased to find a few pieces
of very useful information. Two such
items were: 1) a website named Howard Hickson’s Histories containing an article named
Men in Blue, Fort Halleck Nevada
(1867-1886), and 2) the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, volume 7,
numbers 3-4 (1976-1977). From these two
references, I was able to locate and identify the fort and its placement of
buildings. The National Archives offered
a few period photographs (showing the mountain terrain in the background), and
I had Google Maps for a satellite view.
 |
| Camp Halleck in 1871. National Archives photo by Timothy O'Sullivan |
I learned
that soon after the fort was decommissioned, the buildings, made primarily from
cottonwood trees and adobe, were salvaged by local - friendly - Indians. Nothing remains, save some of the larger
trees. From my
two primary sources, I discovered the site was about 12 miles south of a railroad
station. This portion of Nevada is in
Elko County and the area surrounding the old post is today called Halleck. The fort itself was situated on the banks of what
was then named Cottonwood Creek (today named Soldier Creek). A plot map appearing in the Nevada Historical
Society Quarterly (p30) showed the point at which the fort was next to the
creek. It also showed roads leading to
and past the fort.
The next
step was to compare, or basically overlay, a map appearing in Howard Hickson's Histories with a Google satellite
view of the area from the present day. I
was looking for Soldier Creek and roads that would match up with what appeared
on the old map. I knew everything was
south of the existing railroad tracks, and freeway.
 |
| Howard Hickson's Histories, Men in Blue September 2002 |
The site and
area jumped off of the screen.
Everything lined up. I had read of the distance from the main road leading from the fort to the railroad station, a 12 miles
distance, and surmised it was the line that followed the creek between both
points. Using Google Map’s point to
point measuring tool, I confirmed the route was indeed 12 miles. Today this is McIntyre Road, which looks to travel
through present day private ranch properties.
The next
step was to take closer look at where McIntyre Road reaches the creek, 12
miles south. Using Google’s satellite
view I found existing modern buildings; private properties that appeared to be
ranches. Inspecting the view more, to the
west of the creek I found it! Square and
rectangle shapes in the earth, visible from a satellite’s eye and probably less
so to a viewer on the surface.
 |
| Google satellite image |
The shapes
and their placements, relative to the creek and even some existing trees
matched perfectly – like a latent fingerprint to the real thing – this was all
that was left of a piece of an ancestor’s history.
From the
information found on Howard Hickson’s Histories website, I was able to give
names to the shapes. The large open area
partially outlined with trees was the Parade Ground. Between the creek and the Parade Ground, the
Company Quarters and Mess. North of the
Parade Ground, two sets of stables. Also
falling into place were the Magazine and the Quartermaster’s building.
There were
two hospitals at Fort Halleck, the old one and the new one. The outline of one or the other is east of
the Parade Grounds. Perhaps this is all
that remains of the place my ancestor’s second son was born.
During July
of this year I went to the site of the former Fort Halleck. The route I used was different than the old
road used when the fort was in use. From
eastbound U.S. 80, I took the Halleck exit where state Highway 229 intersects
with the freeway. A Nevada historical
marker for Fort Halleck can be found at this intersection; of course it is no
where near the actual former post grounds.
My route
took me about 17 miles into some very pretty country deep inside Elko
County. Taking Highway 229 south, I
found a hard pack dirt road leading southwest toward Lamoille Nevada. After about six miles of dirt road, I came
across Soldier Creek. Just south of me
lay the Parade Grounds and the large cottonwood trees I’d seen online. There was no way to discern the shapes I had seen using the satellite view.  |
| Monument by Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Photo by Author |
In 1939 the
Daughters of Utah Pioneers erected a monument marking the existence of the
former Army post. I found it, on the south side of the dirt road, east of the creek. Today the
Fort’s former site is a private ranch property.
No trespassing signs are posted.
