Fort Le Duc or Fort LeDuc[a] was a fort and trading post built between present-day Florence and Wetmore, Colorado. It was named after trapper Maurice LeDuc or Maurice LeDoux, and constructed around 1830[1] or 1835.[3]
Maurice Le Duc, a French Canadian, grew up in La Crosse, Kingdom of France.[4][3][c] He left the area as a boy, perhaps with his father, who was a trapper also named Maurie Le Duc. The younger Le Duc partnered up with Thomas "Pegleg" Smith and trapped in the far west of the American frontier by the age of seventeen. He spent time in Taos.[4] Le Duc married a Ute woman.[3]
History
Le Duc is believed that he may have obtained money to start the fort and trading post from the Bent brothers, Charles and George Bent.[3] LeDuc had several circumstances that helped him succeed at the site. The Mexican government licensed him to trade, he was able to purchase the moonshine Taos Lightning, and his wife had many Native American friends who traded at the post.[3] Utes passed through the area as they traveled between the hunting grounds of the plains and west through the Wet Mountain Valley.[4] LeDuc established the post with William LeBlanc and other trappers. He cultivated crops, trapped for furs, and operating the trading post.[4]
The fort was 144 feet (44 m) wide, made of picket lots, and had bastions at the corners. There were wooden gates on the west side of the building that led to a 48-square foot central plaza. An adobe house within the enclosure provided living quarters.[3] The fort, with eight rooms, protected settlers from often hostile Native Americans.[6] It was in service until 1848[6] or 1854, when settlements such as Hardscrabble were established in the area.[2] There are no remains of the fort today.[2]
A historical marker was installed in 1969 in recognition of Fort Le Duc by the Arkansas Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colorado Department of Highways, and Colorado Historical Society. It is located seven miles south of Florence.[6] The historical marker is entitled "Hardscrabble".[3]
^It was also called Buzzard's Roost, El Cuervo, Maurice's Fort, and Crow's Nest.[2][3]
^A source states that the fort was 5 miles from Bent's Old Fort,[3] but per Google Maps, the two forts were about 105 miles apart. Brooks says that Fort Leche was established 5 miles from Bent's Fort. He also says that Fort Le Duc and Bent's Fort were 90 miles apart.[5]
^His surname was spelled a number of ways and he was also confused with his father, also a mountain man, which makes it hard to track records of Le Duc's life events.[4]
^ abcdefghCampbell, Rosemae (Wells) (1972). From trappers to tourists; Fremont County, Colorado, 1830-1950. Palmer Lake, Colo., Filter Press. pp. 7–9. ISBN978-0-910584-29-6. In the source, "Fontaine qui Bouille" refers to Fountain Creek (confluence with Arkansas River at Pueblo), "Don Fernando" refers to Don Fernando de Taos, the name of Taos during Spanish colonization, and "El Cuervo" refers to Fort Le Duc.
