Fort Marcy (Santa Fe, New Mexico) | military, ruins, fortification

 military, ruins, fortification

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Fort with adobe walls 9 feet tall and 3 feet thick with powder magazine in center built by General Stephen W. Kearney and the Army of the West upon his seizure of the New Mexico territory from Mexico in 1846. The square structure to the east was an adobe blockhouse. Was never used to defend Santa Fe during the Mexican-American War, and saw little or no action during US Civil War. Though designed to garrison troops, no troops were garrisoned here and only the powder magazine was ever extensively used. The walls were allowed to deteriorate and were mostly destroyed when a wave of treasure hunting briefly, but extensively, resulted from a trove of coins being discovered there in 1887. The outline of the northern, eastern, south, southwestern, and blockhouse walls can still be seen on the satellite image, but the location of the western and southwestern walls of the fort shown here is approximate based on a contemporary map of the fort.