Fort Chadbourne (Texas Country Reporter)

Fort Chadbourne (Texas Country Reporter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ximpLkMB8cE
Garland grew up on his family's cattle ranch. He's trying to restore ruins of an old frontier fort that cowboys used as stables & barns.

Garland Richards
Bronte, Texas
Phone: 325-743-2555
Website: https://fortchadbourne.org/index.html

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Video Script:: 

[Music] from a letter written March 10th 1861 from s G Davidson back to his wife says this is the dullest place in the world and this this was the epitome of lonely [Music] he's lived here all his life still touched by the sense of empty stillness in the dull gray winters of West Texas growing up on the family ranch garland Richards never had a playground of backyard swimming pool not even a swing set but garland looks back now and says he was the luckiest kid in Texas I thought that every kid had a frontier fort in their backyard I did not realize that that that this was something special probably until I got out of college this was my playground this was my stomping ground this was the barracks one of the barracks buildings I believe as of right now I believe that there were five barracks buildings at Fort Chadbourne Texas still in its infancy back in the 1850s as a wave of settlers moved westward across America the federal government established a strategic system of military posts that stretched from San Antonio northward creating a sweeping line of protection through West Texas fort Chadbourne was one of the most remote outpost in fact for a foot soldier in the 1850s it was a dull and lonely existence to be stationed here there's graffiti on all all in the walls in here and what you have here is see II Buttrick and Tecumseh Michigan these are bullet holes see if they've been plastered over you've got you've got probably underneath this is a bullet hole here's a bullet hole and if you take and you flake this plaster off right in here there probably is a name right up here on the wall that has been replastered more than six thousand men served at Fort Chad burn and the last bugle sounded in the 1870s that's when Garland Richard's ancestor a mr. Thomas Odom acquired the abandoned property and began a successful cattle operation through the years nature and the slow erosion of time swallowed up much of the forgotten fort and Garland's family didn't have time to fool with things like history they sure didn't take too kindly to trespassers wanting to get anywhere near their old fort some of the early artifact hunters in this area my great-grandfather would it would actually run them off the property threatened threatened trespassing charges and everything else because he needed his privacy because of him meeting his privacy in considering this his own he inadvertently preserved probably the finest collection of artifacts military artifacts in in West Texas and probably the United States I used to go out with a broom and sweep in the old dirt road and uncovered many many different artifacts these are things that were picked up off the ground even a hundred years after the fort ceased to exist you'll have anything from sardine cans to gun parts to bottle parts belt buckles clay pipes an artifact is an object that tells its own story from where it was laying and how it was laid in what condition it was in so the imagination can run wild with each individual artifact this is canteen that's found out at Fort Chadron it's us marked very rare this is a shot flask we had several of the Octagon top gun barrels probably from sharps tops rifles right here you have some some pieces of pottery or plate or tea cup or something normally during wet years these things are covered up but during dry the drive year like we had this year the the lack of vegetation on the ground these things are very very accessible and very easy to find this stuff just didn't disappear it's everywhere at Fort Edward you see they just cleared the brush away from the ruins of Fort Chadbourne and the boy who used to play in the old outpost was struck with an image that nearly brought him to tears the balls sturdy and rugged for so long were now crumbling and history was toppling over with every violent gust of West Texas wind garland Richards wrestled with his conscience and with his duty and the plan he came up with was twofold first try to save this important historical site before it's too late and second for the first time in 150 years open up fort Chadbourne to the people of Texas we've got a shop that's very close to port Chadbourne where we've got two guys who have done nothing for the last month other than build wooden braces to actually stabilize and hold the walls in place we hate putting the braces up on these walls this is a necessary step that we've got to do to to stabilize these things so that they will stand on their own and so they will endure time it's a part of history that is that is crumbling before my eyes in a way this guy with a skill saw and this guy with the torch are literally saving for Chadbourne as we speak when I go out in the buildings and kick around a little bit by myself you can almost feel the soldiers and the the people in the early settlers actually speaking to you and and it gives you a sense of historical ties back to your ancestry [Music] garland says history can be a funny thing what a twist that after a hundred and fifty long years it's come down to a desperate race against time to save an almost forgotten piece of Texas past as he looks around these walls garland Richard sees that what once was sturdy is now suffering the burden before him seemed staggering but soon the timeless and wandering echo of a distant view GLE may finally find its home again on a lonely hillside in West Texas I made a promise to myself I'm not gonna see one more wall of fort Chadbourne crumble on this property [Music] you