[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1299-E1300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNITION OF FORT CHADBOURNE, COKE COUNTY, TEXAS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CHARLES W. STENHOLM

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 10, 2001

  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Fort Chadbourne, 
which is located in Coke County, Texas. I commend local citizens, 
including Garland and Lana Richards, along with many others who have 
worked to preserve this important part of Texas history.
  A part of the Texas Fort Trails, Fort Chadbourne was established in 
1852 as one of eight frontier posts set up to provide settlers 
protection while venturing into the Indian Territory. It also provided 
a stage stop for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route. The Fort, which 
is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, is open to the 
public for the first time in 120 years.
  The Fort Chadbourne Foundation, established in 1999 to preserve and 
protect the Fort, is currently in the process of stabilizing the Fort 
ruins and also plans to restore four buildings. In addition, the 
Foundation has raised more than $1,000,000 and is pursuing funding 
through the Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program in order to 
establish a visitors center and museum. The center will enable visitors 
to learn the history of the Fort and the area.
  I wish to include in the Record an excellent article by Preston 
Lewis, a free-lance writer based in San Angelo, that appeared in 
Sunday's edition of The Dallas Morning News.
  I know that many of my colleagues join me in recognizing the 
important historic preservation work at Fort Chadbourne.

              [From The Dallas Morning News, July 8, 2001]

   Pieces of the Past, Fort Chadbourne Preservation Work is Couple's 
                                Mission

                           (By Preston Lewis)

       Fort Chadbourne, Texas.--Not until college did Garland 
     Richards truly realize that not everyone grew up with a 
     genuine frontier fort in the back yard.
       Today the 49-year-old, sixth-generation Coke County rancher 
     is opening up his back yard so that all of Texas can share 
     his fascination with the ruins that provided his imagination 
     such a captivating playground during his youth.
       Mr. Richards' mission--or possibly his obsession--is to 
     preserve the history of Fort Chadbourne and to stop the 
     deterioration of the remaining structures. Ultimately, he and 
     his wife, Lana, hope to build a visitors center where 
     travelers on U.S. Highway 277 between San Angelo and Abilene 
     can stop for a break and a history lesson.
       ``Fort Chadbourne has been good to our family,'' Mr. 
     Richards said. ``It's been home. It's been shelter under the 
     storms and a place where you could keep your saddles dry. The 
     historical value of Fort Chadbourne, which I took for granted 
     for so many years, belongs not just to our family but to 
     everyone.''
       Through his personal research of books and of original 
     source materials in Texas repositories and the National 
     Archives, Mr. Richards estimates that about 6,000 soldiers 
     were stationed at the fort during its brief life. In addition 
     to those and the various other men and women associated with 
     frontier forts, hundreds if not thousands more traveling the 
     Butterfield Trail stopped at the stage station adjacent to 
     the fort.
       Established Oct. 28, 1852, by Companies A and K of the 8th 
     U.S. Infantry, Fort Chadbourne was the midpoint of a line of 
     U.S. military posts stretching from the Red River to the Rio 
     Grande in pre-Civil War Texas. The fort was named for 2nd Lt. 
     Theodore Lincoln Chadbourne, who had died in the Battle of 
     Resaca de la Palma during the Mexican War.
       Though officially closed as a military post in 1867 in 
     favor of the newly established Fort Concho about 45 miles to 
     the southwest, the site and buildings continued to be used by 
     the Army in West Texas through 1873).
       Three years after the Army left the site for good, T.L. 
     Odom--Mr. Richards' great-great-greatgrandfather--purchased 
     the half section encompassing the fort near Oak Creek and 
     another half section where the Army cut its timber.
       Mr. Odom established the O-D Ranch headquarters at the fort 
     site. That land and the fort have been in the family ever 
     since. The property today is known as the Chadbourne Ranch, 
     and it encompasses
       ``Back then, Fort Chadbourne didn't mean anything to them 
     other than a place to stay, a roof to keep the rain off their 
     heads and

[[Page E1300]]

     some place to get in out of the sun,'' Mr. Richards said.
       The roofs on all of the fort structures are gone now. 
     During a 1957 West Texas windstorm, the last surviving roof 
     was blown off a barracks building that was being used as a 
     tool and tack shed.
       Today, that barracks's roofless sandstone walls, some with 
     prickly pear growing out the top, are braced against collapse 
     as they are being prepared for a stabilization project that 
     should be completed by the end of the year.


                         Father was inspiration

       Mr. Richards' father, the late Conda Richards, provided 
     both the inspiration and the grubstake for him to revive Fort 
     Chadbourne from gradual decay and to save its legacy from 
     historical oblivion.
       ``He and I talked at length about preserving the fort,'' 
     Mr. Richards said. ``He was excited and very supportive.''
       When his father died in 1998, Mr. Richards used all of the 
     money from his inheritance to start the Fort Chadbourne 
     Foundation, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit charitable foundation.
       ``It has been a learning process from the word go,'' he 
     said. ``I've run budgets on cattle and I've run budgets on 
     wheat and everything else, but as far as me going in and 
     making a seven-year projected budget on a fort and submitting 
     it to the IRS for a 501 (c)3, I was pretty much at a loss.''
       Mr. Richards majored in agriculture at Angelo State 
     University, but over the last five years, he and his wife 
     have probably earned the equivalent of a Ph.D. in history, 
     grant-writing and nonprofit management in their efforts to 
     preserve the fort and its heritage.
       Mrs. Richards said she has supported her husband in the 
     project from the beginning.
       ``I'm not as knowledgeable a history buff as Garland is, 
     but this is the kind of enterprise where he and I can use our 
     strengths,'' she said. ``I told him if he wanted to go to 
     grant-writing classes, I'd go with him. I'm not the writer he 
     is, but I'm a better speller. What he can't come up with, I 
     usually can.''
       She has learned that the history can become fascinating.
       ``You never know what you are going to come up with,'' she 
     said. ``Today I've been taking pictures where we uncovered 
     some more stones with names carved on them. That is exciting, 
     a real energizer.''
       The creation of the foundation opened up the possibility of 
     grant monies to support the work that the couple had been 
     funding out of their own pockets. It was more money than Mr. 
     Richards cares to admit, plus ``four years of our lives.''
       To help cover the expenses, they started writing grant 
     proposals. Through support from the Summerlee Foundation, the 
     Dodge-Jones Foundation and the Texas Historical Commission, 
     they have brought in an additional $414,000.


                            Research project

       In addition to the stabilization project, the grants have 
     helped fund a billboard on Highway 277 pointing to the 
     turnoff to the ruins. A historical research project is in 
     progress to identify documents and other primary source 
     materials necessary to write the first history of Fort 
     Chadbourne.
       Each fall, the foundation also has a fund-raiser for the 
     preservation efforts. The event includes reenactors, programs 
     on the fort, and skits reflecting stories and vignettes from 
     the fort's past. Last year, for instance, Mr. Richards 
     included in the program a newly discovered letter from the 
     post surgeon to the War Department stating in the most formal 
     language that he was unable to give his monthly 
     meteorological report in full because the Comanches had 
     stolen his rain gauge. This year's fund-raiser is scheduled 
     for Sept. 22.
       ``We've looked every way we could look trying to figure out 
     a way for Fort Chadbourne to pay for itself,'' Mr. Richards 
     said. ``We've pretty much determined that Fort Chadbourne 
     will never pay for itself or make an income. As far as the 
     dollars Lana and I have invested in the fort, I don't think 
     that anybody will ever recover those dollars. This is just 
     something I wanted to do, and I convinced her that we needed 
     to do it.''
       If the site can be preserved and developed, Mr. Richards 
     said he believes it can bring in significant revenue to the 
     area. He said studies indicate that visitors to historic 
     sites spend an average of $94 a day in the area.
       ``If we are capable of bringing in 80,000 visitors a year, 
     which the numbers indicate to us we are capable of doing,'' 
     Mr. Richards said, ``theoretically, that could put another 
     $7.5 million into the economy of San Angelo, Abilene, 
     Ballinger, Bronte and Winters.''
       Even if the economics of the fort never reach that level, 
     Mr. Richards said he's glad he made the effort to save Fort 
     Chadbourne.
       ``It has been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun. 
     I've met some neat people along the way and they are what 
     keeps us going,'' he said.
       For example, an article on the Texas Forts Trail in the 
     November issue of Texas Highways ran a photograph of a carved 
     inscription in the barracks wall: Albert Haneman, Oct. 19, 
     1858, Co. B 2 Cav.
       Two days after the magazine appeared on newsstands, Mr. 
     Richards received a call from John and Laura Haneman of 
     Austin, indicating that Albert Haneman was his great-
     grandfather. Barely weeks after the photo appeared, Haneman 
     family members from Austin and El Paso met at Fort Chadbourne 
     for a family reunion and the chance to see in person the 
     graffiti of their ancestor.
       ``I've got a cool job,'' Mr. Richards said. ``It doesn't 
     pay well, but things like that are what makes what we are 
     doing worthwhile.''

     

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