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The evidence, organized

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79 records · 21 people · 79 sources

One place to move through the whole record behind this site: the research library, the people, how evidence is weighed, the full source list, and why this project exists.

Research Library

Research Library

Everything cited on this site, arranged as a reading room rather than a bibliography. Records appear in every collection they belong to.

Collections

Start where your question starts.

Who was there

People of Camp Weld

The leaders, officers, officials and record-keepers whose names run through this history.

21 of 21 entries

How this site works

Sources & Methodology

Every factual claim traces to a record you can open, and the qualifications in the underlying research are carried through rather than removed.

The evidence standard

A claim appears here when a contemporary document, a federal or municipal record, a published state historical society article, a repository catalogue entry, or a peer institution's study supports it. Where only a later recollection supports something, the page says so in the sentence itself, not in a note at the bottom.

Nothing on this site is invented for narrative effect. Where the record is thin — the exact interior arrangement of the camp, the precise identifications in the 1864 photographs — the page states that the record is thin.

How claims are labeled

Small chips classify what kind of statement you are reading:

  • Documented fact
  • Primary-source allegation
  • Later recollection
  • Historical interpretation
  • Tribal Elder perspective
  • Geographic reconstruction

The distinction matters most around the spring 1864 fighting, where the strongest statements about who fired first come from testimony and recollection rather than from a contemporary military report.

Reading the citations

Inline markers open the original record in a new tab and show the publisher and date on hover. Some Denver newspaper links resolve through a library or subscription gateway; those are flagged, and a public library card is usually enough to reach them.

How the library is organized

The library above arranges the same records into overlapping collections, so a single land patent can be found under treaties and land, government records, and people. The collections are:

Known limits

Three limits are worth stating plainly. First, the camp's boundary is reconstructed, not surveyed. Second, caption identifications in the September 1864 photographs differ between repositories, and this site does not resolve those differences. Third, the Denver newspaper record is a record of what Denver's newspapers chose to print — it documents the city's public mood as reliably as it documents events on the plains.

Corrections

Historical content here is drawn from documentation compiled through collaboration between designated Sand Creek Massacre Representatives of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and CenterSignal Media. Corrections and additional archival material are welcome; see the About section below.

Research

Full Source List

Every factual claim on this site traces to one of the records below: contemporary newspapers, state historical society publications, federal land patents, National Park Service documentation, tribal and university studies, and municipal planning records.

79 sources

  1. 1
    Camp Weld historical marker

    The Historical Marker Database (HMdb)

  2. 2
    Photograph of the deteriorating Camp Weld plaque

    HMdb

  3. 3
    Denver Revised Municipal Code, Chapter 30 (Landmark Preservation)

    City and County of Denver

  4. 4
    Burnham Yard Small Area Plan

    Denver Community Planning and Development

  5. 5
    Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

    National Park Service

  6. 6
    Sand Creek Massacre — History & Culture

    National Park Service

  7. 7
    The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever (traveling exhibition)

    History Colorado

  8. 8
    John Evans Study Report (2014)

    University of Denver · 2014

  9. 9
    John Evans Study Report — full text (PDF)

    University of Denver · 2014

  10. 10
    Report of the John Evans Study Committee

    Northwestern University

  11. 11
    “We Are the Land” — American Indian / Indigenous Peoples historic context study

    City and County of Denver, Landmark Preservation

  12. 12
    The Legal and Political History of Colorado Tribes (PDF)

    The People of the Sacred Land

  13. 13
    “What’s in a Name” report

    University of Colorado

  14. 14
    Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol — Gary L. Roberts

    University of Denver Digital Commons

  15. 15
    Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — Dee Brown

  16. 16
    The Battle of Sand Creek — Morse Coffin (PDF transcription)

  17. 17
    The Battle of Sand Creek — Morse Coffin (1960s republication)

  18. 18
    Arapaho and Cheyenne delegation at Camp Weld, 1864 (photograph record)

    Colorado Encyclopedia · September 1864

  19. 19
    Camp Weld photograph including Arapaho and Cheyenne leaders

    Denver Public Library, Western History Collection

  20. 20
    History of Denver — Jerome Smiley (1901)

    Denver Public Library digital collections · 1901

  21. 21
    The Colorado Magazine, Vol. XI No. 2 (PDF)

    Colorado Historical Society · March 1934

  22. 22
    The Colorado Magazine, Vol. XV No. 2 (PDF)

    State Historical Society of Colorado · March 1938

  23. 23
    The Colorado Magazine, Vol. XV No. 4 (PDF) — J. N. Hall article

    State Historical Society of Colorado · July 1938

  24. 24
    Rocky Mountain News description of the new camp’s 30-acre enclosure

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Oct. 24, 1861

  25. 25
    Gov. John Evans’ August 1864 proclamation

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Aug. 13, 1864

  26. 26
    Published account of the council with Evans and Chivington

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Sept. 13, 1865

  27. 27
    “Cheyenne scalps are getting as thick here now as toads in Egypt”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Dec. 22, 1864

  28. 28
    “Denver’s $30,000,000 Scalp Carnival”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 30, 1927

  29. 29
    Elbridge B. Sopris recalls Sand Creek

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 30, 1927

  30. 30
    Chivington honored at Denver City Hall; Jacob Downing’s remarks

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Sept. 15, 1883

  31. 31
    Coverage of the 1883 Chivington celebration at Denver City Hall

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Sept. 15, 1883

  32. 32
    W. N. Byers defends the Sand Creek “sham battle”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Sept. 20, 1898

  33. 33
    “Fifteen thousand people drawn to City Park to witness a fiasco”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Oct. 6, 1898

  34. 34
    Chivington portrait hung at the Historical Society (“Sand Creek corner”)

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · Oct. 30, 1898 · subscription or archive access may be required

  35. 35
    Unveiling of the Civil War monument at the State Capitol

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · July 25, 1909

  36. 36
    Colorado Legislature votes to change the monument’s “Sand Creek” designation

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · May 6, 1998

  37. 37
    Cometsevah and Halaas argue to preserve the original text

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Aug. 1, 1998

  38. 38
    Corrective interpretive plaque installed at the Capitol

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Nov. 30, 2002

  39. 39
    Sand Creek memorial could replace Civil War monument at the Colorado Capitol

    Westword · 2020

  40. 40
    Public dedication of the Camp Weld marker

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Feb. 23, 1934

  41. 41
    Colorado Historical Society receives Sand Creek “relics”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · March 8, 1932

  42. 42
    George E. Cranmer defends the “Chivington Boulevard” proposal

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 22, 1941

  43. 43
    State Rep. Leonard H. Hudnall protests the proposed name

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 22, 1941

  44. 44
    Council names the street Hale Parkway

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Feb. 4, 1941

  45. 45
    Report of the killing of Cheyenne people in northeast Colorado

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Oct. 10, 1864

  46. 46
    Veteran recalls Camp Weld standing where the Burnham Yard shops now stand

    Pueblo Sun (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 8, 1910

  47. 47
    “where the Denver and Rio Grande shops are now located”

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Jan. 27, 1901

  48. 48
    Camp Weld recollection (1908–09 account)

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · April 23, 1909

  49. 49
    Camp Weld location account (1920)

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · July 11, 1920

  50. 50
    Camp Weld location account (1923)

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Feb. 16, 1923

  51. 51
    Camp Weld location account (1924)

    Rocky Mountain News (Colorado Historic Newspapers) · Aug. 6, 1924

  52. 52
    Camp Weld location account (1929)

    Colorado Historic Newspapers · July 29, 1929

  53. 53
    George Bent on the spring 1864 attacks and the killing of Lean Bear

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · Nov. 6, 1905 · subscription or archive access may be required

  54. 54
    McLain’s Independent Colorado Battery — unit record

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  55. 55
    Denver Post report on the remaining Camp Weld building and Agnes Wright Spring’s appeal

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · July 1960 · subscription or archive access may be required

  56. 56
    Denver Post report that the memorial effort was abandoned

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · 1962 · subscription or archive access may be required

  57. 57
    Denver Post report on demolition of the last likely Camp Weld structure

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · 1962 · subscription or archive access may be required

  58. 58
    Denver Post report on Civil War items excavated near Eighth and Vallejo

    The Denver Post via NewsBank / Denver Public Library · February 1937 · subscription or archive access may be required

  59. 59
    Agnes Wright Spring, Colorado State Historian

    History Colorado

  60. 60
    Fort Chambers / Poor Farm Management Plan

    City of Boulder

  61. 61
    Fort Chambers interpretive framework (PDF)

    City of Boulder

  62. 62
    Fort Chambers and the Sand Creek Massacre

    City of Boulder

  63. 63
    Tribal consultation program

    City of Boulder

  64. 64
    City and Tribal representatives seek input on concept stewardship plan

    City of Boulder

  65. 65
    Sand Creek Massacre memorial project

    Sand Creek Massacre Foundation

  66. 66
    Niwot (Left Hand)

    Colorado Encyclopedia

  67. 67
    Niwot living history — relationships

    Niwot Living History

  68. 68
    CenterSignal Media

  69. 69
    Federal land patent record — Alexander Cameron Hunt (160 acres)

    Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records · February 1866

  70. 70
    Federal land patent record — Elisha Milleson (40 acres, pre-emption)

    Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records · December 1865

  71. 71
    Alexander Cameron Hunt

  72. 72
    Congressional testimony on atrocities committed at Sand Creek

  73. 73
    Service record — Elisha Milleson

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  74. 74
    Service record — Langdon Clark

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  75. 75
    Service record — Elbridge B. Sopris

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  76. 76
    Service record — Harper M. Orahood

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  77. 77
    Service record — George C. Squires

    National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  78. 78
    Reporting on Silas Soule and the Sand Creek Massacre

    The Colorado Sun

  79. 79
    Colorado’s 150th anniversary a somber occasion for Native Americans who lost territory

    The Denver Post

About this project

About This Project

This site collects the documentary record of Camp Weld in one place: where it was, what happened there in 1864, and how Denver has and has not marked it since.

Purpose

Camp Weld is remembered in Denver by a single granite marker whose 1864 history occupies eight words. The ground it occupied is now part of an active redevelopment conversation. This site assembles the primary and secondary record so that conversation can be an informed one.

Method

Claims are tied to numbered sources. Where evidence is a later recollection, a reconstruction, an allegation from testimony, or an interpretation, it is labeled as such. Archival images are linked to their holding repositories rather than reproduced here.

Cheyenne and Arapaho voices

Statements by Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders and by designated Sand Creek Massacre Representatives are quoted as recorded in the cited sources. This site is not a substitute for the accounts maintained by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho Nations, the National Park Service, or History Colorado.

Corrections

Historical records conflict, and reconstructions can be refined. Where a source is misattributed or a geographic inference can be improved with survey evidence, the page should be corrected.