It was located near the western bank of Ute Creek on the base of Mount Blanca and sat at an elevation of 8,000 feet,[1] approximately 6 miles north of present-day Fort Garland.

Built in 1852, and abandoned in 1858, Fort Massachusetts was the first regularly-garrisoned government installation established on the soil that would soon be the territory of Colorado.

[2] However, at the time of its construction and occupation, the land was technically part of the New Mexico Territory, and the San Luis Valley remained vastly unsettled.

Its other purpose was to serve as a headquarters for Indian Agents and to make clear to Mexico that the area was now a U.S. territory as mandated by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed five years before the construction of Fort Massachusetts.

[3] After the news of the attack reached Colonel John Garland, the commander of the military district of New Mexico, he requested Governor David Meriwether to provide five companies of mounted volunteers to serve for a period of six months.

[1] On March 18, 1855, scouts discovered an Indian war party that was led by Chief Tierra Blanca, the perpetrator of the massacre at Fort Pueblo.

[3] Forces led by Colonel Fauntleroy discovered a band of Ute Indians camped out near the modern-day town of Salida, Colorado on the night of April 28, 1855.

[3] Upon daybreak, Col. Fauntleroy engaged the camp, and in a twenty-five minute battle, forty Utes were killed, and a large number of them were wounded.

The nearest settlement is 30 miles to the southward on the Coulubre (Culebra) River where there are about 25 families engaged in the planting of corn and wheat.

In winter the snow falls here to the depth of four feet….My impression are that this post would have been better located on the Culebra River, the most norther settlement in New Mexico, where access could be had to the Troops by the population of the Valley, without the hazard of being cut off by the Indians.

[6] The fort had originally been placed because military scouts reported that the area was an Indian hunting ground, and at the time of the initial survey, the site was along the route settlers often took into the valley.