 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2013) |
Fort Fillmore | |
  | |
| Nearest city | Las Cruces, New Mexico |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°13′30″N 106°42′52″W / 32.22500°N 106.71444°W |
| Area | 24.4 acres (9.9 ha) |
| Built | 1851 |
| NRHP reference No. | 74001196[1] |
| NMSRCP No. | 36 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 30, 1974 |
| Designated NMSRCP | February 21, 1969 |
Fort Fillmore, located at 32°13′30″N 106°42′52″W,[2][3] was a United States military fortification established by Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner in September 1851 near Mesilla in what is now New Mexico, primarily for the purpose of protecting settlers and traders traveling to California. Early frontier migrants were under constant threat from attack by local Native Americans, and a network of forts was eventually created by the U.S. government to protect and encourage westward expansion. Fort Fillmore was intended to protect a corridor plagued by hostile Apaches, where several migration routes converged between El Paso and Tucson to take advantage of Apache Pass.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Doña Ana County G.I.S. Division
- ^ 1854 map titled "The Mesilla Valley". Surveyed under the direction of BVT Captain J. Pope, Corps of Engineers.