March 16, 1882. With the Indians gone, the old fort is back to normal and maybe short of normal. Last year we had as many as 1500 men here—now we’re down to a couple of companies. My boys are growing up, but by the time they’re soldier age it appears there won’t be any place for them to soldier. July 4, 1882. Had a big Independence Day celebration here today. Not much else to celebrate. Inspection team came to the fort again this week and it looks as if they’re going to close up all the old forts and kick-out all the old soldiers. The company commander, a young buck, had the brass to tell me I was getting too old to soldier. This fort’s getting old too. They haven’t been keeping the adobe walls plastered with mud like they used to and the rains have been making little rivers down the sides of the buildings. February 5, 1883. At the end of this enlistment—which comes up in December this year—they say I’ve got to retire. I’m not an old man, but several old wounds have been bothering me and the doctor turned in a bad report on me. Why! I won’t know what to do away from the Army and this old fort. They might as well shoot me like they do a horse that’s broken his leg. October 10, 1883. Major General John Pope, commanding the Department of the Missouri, has recommended to the War Department that they close several Indian forts and Garland is one of them. Well, the old fort and the old soldier can go together. November 29, 1883. Tomorrow the fort closes—likely forever. Company A, 22nd United States Infantry, under the command of Captain Javan Irvine, will leave here for Fort Lewis, Colorado, and no new company will come to replace it—as has happened for these past twenty-odd years. Somehow it won’t seem so bad to leave the Army now, knowing that Garland and I close our gates together. Family and I are going to stay on in the valley and try doing a little ranching. Got a whole flock of kids to help. [Illustration: Cavalry and Infantry Sergeants in Full Dress.] Fort Garland Becomes A State Museum By Rosamund Slack [Illustration: Bugle with decorative letter “I”] In 1883 Fort Garland was abandoned and the equipment belonging to the fort was sent to the new Fort Lewis, while the fort lands reverted to the Trinchera Estate. For many years stock wandered across the parade to nibble of the grass once trod by drilling soldiers—rats and other small animals inhabited the barracks and officer’s quarters. Decay and erosion set to work in earnest in an effort to destroy the old fort. It appeared that the once proud adobe walls would become a part of the soil again and that Fort Garland would be only a memory in the minds of a few old soldiers who had made the garrison their home.