Historic fort faces uncertain future

FORT BAYARD, N.M. (KRQE) - A state-owned historical landmark that has stood in place for almost 150 years may not be around for much longer.

Buildings are falling apart and vandals and burglars have broken in to some of them. But right now the state is powerless to stop the decay.

“It’s sad,” said Cecilia Bell, president of the Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society. “You want to cry.”

Fort Bayard – located near Silver City in the southwestern corner of New Mexico -- has been a state and national historical landmark for years.

Established in the mid-1800s for U.S. soldiers to protect the area from Apache Indians, it was eventually home to Native American scouts, buffalo soldiers, and the first U.S. Army hospital for soldiers suffering from tuberculosis.

According to Bell, the fort is now falling apart before her eyes. But it wasn’t always like that.

“It was pristine,” Bell said. “It was painted. It was cared for. To see what’s happened to it is discouraging, very discouraging.”

The state took control of the property in the 1960s, turning what was then a federal Veterans Administration hospital into a medical facility operated by the state health department. But late last year, the on-site geriatric hospital closed when the state opened a new facility nearby.

Now the hospital, and the homes that once housed hospital staff, are empty. As a result, local sheriff’s deputies are now required to make extra patrols.

“We’ve been getting reports of suspicious people coming up here and doing things they shouldn’t be doing,” said Grant County Sheriff Raul Villanueva.

The fort complex includes the vacant hospital building, and dozens of other buildings – many of them homes. Pictures taken by members of the historic preservation society show graffiti, as well as damage from a recent fire that destroyed one of the historic homes.

According to Bell, the state is not doing enough to protect the historical landmark. But state officials admit they can’t do much.

“Not in this cycle,” said Larry Miller, deputy director of the state’s property control division. “This current budget cycle, the property control division’s budget is inadequate to maintain the Fort Bayard site.”

Miller said one of the many challenges is the fact the fort does not have an assigned use. State money has to be used first on state buildings currently in operation.

Even so, preserving the fort is still on the state’s radar, he said.

“That’s still a major concern for us, to not lose the historic fabric on that site,” Miller said.

The Department of Health is still providing landscaping maintenance, but that will soon stop. A state-funded feasibility study could help determine a future use for Fort Bayard, but the bottom line is there is no money to preserve the facility right now.

According to the state’s property control division, money that would have gone to Fort Bayard’s maintenance disappeared when a $240 million capital outlay bill died in the final hours of this year’s legislative session. For now, the state can only afford to make emergency repairs to the Fort Bayard complex.

Most seem to agree the only way to save the fort is to find a new purpose for the hospital building. Efforts currently are underway to try and turn the complex into a center for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

The proposed PTSD center could be the fort’s only hope, according to members of the Operation Fort Bayard Task Force.

“We’re envisioning using the entire complex,” said Armando Amador, a task force member. “Where there’s room we could probably build up, and where there’s places we could probably remodel and build up.”

Task force members are counting on a bill sponsored by New Mexico’s U.S. senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman. The bill, which is still in the works, calls for funding another study to find out how feasible the proposed PTSD center might be.

“We already found a purpose for it,” Amador said. “It’s just getting it done.”

Task force members are just as worried about the fort’s future, as members of the historic preservation society. Without a new purpose, they might have to say goodbye.

“I see the fort being shut down completely,” Bell said. “And once that happens, it’s over.”