Pike’s Stockade historic site to reopen in August 2020

SANFORD-  History Colorado will reopen Pike’s Stockade near Sanford, Colorado, on Friday, August 7, 2020. The stockade has been closed since 2018 due to tree fall damage.


Pike’s Stockade is a historic site in the San Luis Valley, seventeen miles southeast of Alamosa on the Conejos River. It is a reconstruction of a log fortress built by United States soldiers on the Zebulon Pike Expedition in January 1807. The replica stockade was first built in 1952 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961. History Colorado has administered the site for nearly a century and today it is maintained by the staff at Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center. In addition to the log fortress, the site offers educational panels, walking paths, restrooms, and picnic areas.


The stockade was damaged by falling trees during a windstorm in 2018 and the site was closed until it could be made safe for visitors. Thanks to the support of the San Luis Valley Community Foundation and the San Luis Valley Great Outdoors, History Colorado was able to make repairs to the site. Some work remains to be done to the structure itself and guests should heed all posted signs about maintaining distance from the stockade.


Pike’s Stockade will be open daily from sunrise to sunset. In addition to the fortress, the grounds include walking trails, picnic tables, and plenty of space to socially distance. It is located at 22862 Co Rd 24, Sanford, CO, 81151. For questions about the site, contact the staff of Fort Garland Museum at 719-379-3512 or [email protected]



About Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center
Fort Garland was built in 1858, ten years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, during American expansion into the west. Today, visitors can explore life in a nineteenth century military fort by walking the parade grounds and touring five of the original adobe buildings. The Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center is a museum of History Colorado.


The Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center is located at 29477 Hwy. 159, Fort Garland, Colorado, and is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit www.FortGarlandMuseum.org or call 719-379-3512 for more information.

About History Colorado
History Colorado’s eight museums around the state are now reopening to visitors. Inclusive, values-driven, and intentional, History Colorado has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with an agile reorganization. Its blitz has created new educational channels for adults and youth (including at-home summer-camp kits now available), full-length episodes of its podcasts, a series of Archaeology & Preservation webinars, a major volunteer project, a weekly digest with over 28,000 subscribers, and one of the nation’s most comprehensive collecting initiatives: a partnership with dozens of schools, communities, and more than 40 newsrooms called History in the Making. While working from home, its State Historical Fund staff distributed more than $1 million in grant dollars to community projects across the state between March 20 and April 20, and continued its grant funding on schedule.


History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in our past. We serve as the state’s memory, preserving and sharing the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, collecting, outreach to Colorado communities, the History Colorado Center and Stephen H. Hart Research Center in Denver, and nine other museums and historic attractions statewide. History Colorado is one of only six Smithsonian Affiliates in Colorado. Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.