THIS EVENT WILL QUALIFY YOU TO EARN THE 2018 CITO VIRTUAL SOUVENIR!
WHAT: CITO event to help clean up trash alongside the walking trails and river bank around Fort Uncompahgre and adjacent park. Handicap, wheelchair, Newbies, well behaved pets on leash & young children are welcome, we have areas away from river bank for them to work.
WHERE:GZ is first parking lot to your right as you enter Confluence Park, Delta CO, just off of Confluence Drive (new Hwy 50 bypass) just south of bridge - then west. Furthest reaches of CITO from GZ is 600 yds, all on level ground. Much of it is within <100 yds of GZ on a firm hardpack trail system.
WHEN: 3:30 to 5:00 w/ Intake, Welcome & instructions then CITO with a drawing for door prizes at 4:45. We are planning to have one of the coveted GCCO (GeoCaching Colorado) Gold GeoCoins!
Bottled water will be available, toilets are nearby, bring your own refreshments.
check out the photo gallery to see newspaper clips of our previous event in DCI and GJT Daily Sentinel
*********** FYI HISTORICAL INFORMATIONAL ONLY - NOT PART OF THE EVENT *************
The current Fort is a reconstruction based on sketches and is located within Delta’s “Confluence Park” which contains multiple recreational facilities including 8 caches along the walk path, several in the immediate area we will be cleaning. Feel free to find and log them during the CITO event. Team kekj are volunteers at the Fort and will provide tours after the CITO event (usually 30 minutes). Other Ft. volunteers will also be there helping with clean up, all of us dressed in period costume, so tours will continue until 6 p.m. Tours can be joined at any time - asking questions and taking as long as you wish.
Open to the public during the summer months, the Fort also works closely with western Colorado area schools, providing educational tours to over 2000 fourth-graders each school year as a part of their state history requirements. Your participation in this CITO event impacts not just a piece of ground cleaned up but an entire community of school kids spread over a 100+ mile radius. As the only official interpretive center along the entire Old Spanish Trail (OST), it also provides research resources for this National Historic trail system stretching from Santa Fe to Colorado, Utah, Nevada and on to LAX
Fort Uncompahgre - “un-come-paw-gray”- was established in late 1820’s by Antoine Robidoux who also established several trails for supplying goods to the fort including the Mountain Branch of the Old Spanish Trail (OST) and Rouidoux’s Cutoff that left the Santa Fe Trail near Bent’s Fort. The OST was first established in 1829 using previously established routes as far as the fort. In 2002 the OST became a part of the National Historic Trail system. Remnants of the OST can still be seen along Hwy 50 N of Delta - (see cache GC70MGD - The Old Spanish Trail - which takes you to a hwy side kiosk pointing out trail scars of OST)
The first (and for its time, only) trading post west of the Rockies, the “Fort” was established primarily for the beaver pelt trade and had only palisade walls - primarily to keep wild animals out and domestic stock in. Not really a defensive “fort,” it soon became the local “Walmart” for the Ute Indians of the area as well as for the mostly Mexican and few European trappers in the area. Buffalo, bear, wolf, fox, mountain lion and tanned hides were also taken in trade. A blacksmiths shop was an important part of the fort to make hardware, shoe both the forts’ and trappers pack animals and make & repair metal items of all kinds from guns & traps, to pots, knives and axes. Originally from Canada, then American - Antoine became a Mexican citizen in order to obtain a franchise for the trading post in order to supply pelts to the family’s fur business located in St. Joseph Missouri (established by & named after Antoine’s father - Joseph.) Pack trains taking furs out brought trade goods back in, wheeled traffic could not get to the fort until the OST had been in existence and improved over several years.
With the coming of silk as the preferred fiber of the “Top Hat”, demand for beaver fur declined and along with it the Fort. It was permanently abandoned in 1844 soon after a dispute between the Ute’s and Mexican government during which the Ft. was attacked (but not destroyed) killing all Mexican nationals. For many years after, the Ft. was mentioned by travelers along the nearby OST as a landmark but, being entirely built of wood, it slowly decayed and the exact original location has been lost to history.
"Confluence Park" was once a huge sugar mill, the concrete silos still remain. After the mill site was abandoned it slowly disintegrated into ruin and became a dumping ground and swamp. The city finally took it over, cleaned it up, built a small fishing lake, walk trails and multiple recreation facilities on the site. It is now a favorite haunt of young and old alike with sports fields, picnic shelters, indoor swimming pools and sports courts as well as large shaded picnic tables and even a free RV dump but like any facility of this size the perimeter gathers trash - - - - that is where YOU & CITO come in!