Old Fort Bliss

The first United States military post in what is now El Paso was established in February 1848, and "in September 1849, Major Jefferson Van Horne arrived with regimental headquarters and six companies to defend against Indian raids and to maintain American authority in the territory recently acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" (Handbook of Texas, p.620). The post was officially named in 1854 for Colonel William Wallace S. Bliss, assistant adjutant general, and General Zachary Taylor's adjutant general during the Mexican War.

At this time the American settlement on the north side of the Rio Grande consisted of four scattered establishments known as Hart's Mill, Smith's Ranch, Magoffinsville, and Stephenson's (or Concordia) Ranch.

The United States military establishment of Fort Bliss has occupied a number of different locations and was abandoned several times in the first decades after its founding. The Smith Ranch site, Magoffinsville site, and the Concordia site were all on land leased by the United States government. The fourth location and the first fort site which the federal government purchased was established on 135 acres at Hart's Mill in 1878. It was on this site that the first permanent establishment was to be built.

Hart's Mill, which was located at the strategic site of the actual pass through the mountains along the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico, had been settled in 1851 by Simeon Hart.

Hart settled in 1850 in what was to become El Paso and built a flour mill in 1851. Hart's Mill, powered by water impounded on the Rio Grande, was a large mill with a capacity of one hundred barrels daily, supplying flour for the vast territory east to San Antonio, south to Rosales in Mexico, and west to Tucson, Arizona. (Handbook of Texas, p.781). With an interruption during the Civil War, Hart successfully operated his mill until his death in 1874.

In 1878, the Hart's Mill site for Fort Bliss was purchased from Hart's heirs and his home, called "Molino," which has been remodeled into the present La Hacienda Restaurant, and the mill was apparently used and incorporated into the Fort Bliss complex. "Congress had appropriated $40,000 for the new fort, but the contractor's bid ran $160,000. The result was that the soldiers were told to handle the construction, and the further result was that as late as 1881 the department commander was complaining that because of frequent Indian escapades, the work of constructing Fort Bliss buildings was still a long way from complete." (Frontier Forts of Texas, p.33).
The Hart's Mill location of Fort Bliss also failed to be a permanent location for the military post. "The railroads, then at the height of their power and therefore more persuasive with Congress and the Texas Legislature than the military, desired a right-of-way through the Fort Bliss acreage." (Frontier Forts of Texas, p.33). Soon the Southern Pacific tracks and the Santa Fe tracks bisected the post's parade ground.

The Hart's Mill location of Fort Bliss was, during its fifteen-year existence between 1878 and 1893, strategically involved in some of the last Indian campaigns in the Southwest, including the Victorio uprising in 1879 and the campaign against Geronimo in 1885-1886. In 1893, Fort Bliss was moved to its final location five miles northeast of El Paso.