The Alamosa Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR or DAR) was organized January 31, 1927, by a group of interested women with Mrs. Herbert Allen Black, State Regent of the Society, as organizer. The chapter received its charter March 10, 1927. On this charter were inscribed the names of the 14 charter members: Jane Elizabeth Briggs Montgomery, Dorothy Fisher Cummings, Jessie Harrison Davis, Olive Skeel Foley, Genevieve Vanderhoof Linger, Nada D. Magee, Caroline Ada Stoddard Myers, Florence M. Ross, Ann Hamilton Shull, Vena Robinson Soule. Charter members elected as officers were: Caroline Davis Platt, regent; Mildred Lyman Day, recording secretary and corresponding secretary; Genevieve Morris Bennett, treasurer; Janet Brown Lantis, historian.
The name of the Alamosa Chapter is taken from the Spanish meaning “grove of the cotton woods.” The streets of this 1878 town were lined with immense cottonwood trees which grew along the ditches on both sides of the streets. Both ditches and trees have long been gone, and the streets are now paved.
On January 5, 1806, Zebulon Pike reached his previous camp at the site of Canon City. As the horses were unable to travel and the supplies were meager, Pike decided to build here a blockhouse for deposit. Leaving two men in charge, he set out with the remainder to the south seeking the Red River. After encountering great hardships they crossed the Sangre de Cristo Range and beheld “the broad San Luis Valley with the shining thread of the Rio Grande winding across its level floor.” Toward this stream they turned and, passing near the site of Alamosa, reached the Conejos River and encamped five miles above the mouth. Here they built a fort which became known as Pike’s Stockade. This stockade, occupied by Pike and his men from February 1 to 26, 1807, was within Spanish territory. The Spanish had 100 troops take Pike and his men into custody and conducted them to Santa Fe, and later Chihuahua, Mexico.
This fort was the first American structure built in the San Luis Valley. Monte Vista and Alamosa Chapters took part in the erection of a monument at the exact site and a flag pole was erected. One of the local projects of Alamosa Chapter is to work for the appropriation of funds to keep the Fort open and protected.
