village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained
there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches.
In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when
the construction of the new post was begun, and the work
continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it
was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to
the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had
been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall
a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him.
Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above
the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of
cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the
spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of
officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables,
all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of
Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to
Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the
battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866,
the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the
fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for
military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty
miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old
post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow,
Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and
passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe.

The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous
hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal indigenous
to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther--the so-called
California lion of to-day--the lynx, erroneously termed wild cat, white
wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, antelope, buffalo,
gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with the common brown and
black species, the red deer and the black-tail, the latter the finest
venison in the world. Of birds there were wild turkeys, quail, and
grouse, besides an endless variety of the smaller-sized families, not
regarded as belonging to the domain of game in a hunter's sense. It was
a veritable paradise, too, for the trappers. Its numerous streams and
c