Fort Stanton was established in May 1855 on the Rio Bonito at a site
located approximately four miles east of present-day Capitan and three
miles south of U.S. Highway 380. The fort was an attempt to control the
Mescalero and White Mountain Apaches and was named for Capt. H. W.
Stanton who had been killed by Apache Indians earlier that year. Many a
soldier stationed at Fort Stanton gave up his life to an Apache during
the Indian wars.
[Illustration: Map of New Mexico showing location of frontier forts]
The original fort was little more than a stockade, with few buildings
and little equipment. In August 1861, the government stores were burned
and the troops moved to Albuquerque in the face of the Confederate
invasion. Confederate troops occupied the site one month later but
promptly left after a few encounters with the Apache. The site was
reoccupied by Union troops October 1862 and, later, substantial
buildings were erected, most of which still stand.
With the passing of the frontier, Fort Stanton was abandoned as a
military post in August 1896, and in 1899, the installation passed to
the U.S. Public Health Service for use as a merchant marine hospital for
the treatment of tuberculosis. During World War II, a German prisoner of
war camp was established at the fort. In 1953, the hospital was closed
by the federal government because of the high cost of running the
establishment. Fort Stanton is now a state tuberculosis hospital
operated by the New Mexico Department of Public Welfare.
Col. Kit Carson used the fort as a base of operations while rounding up
the Mescalero and White Mountain Apaches in late 1862 and early 1863. In
1881, the famous outlaw, Billy the Kid, was confined in the building now
used as a dental clinic while on his way to the gallows in Lincoln,
which never claimed him. Gen. John J. Pershing, as a young lieutenant,
was stationed for a time at Fort Stanton.