Leisure Times: Western Art Show at the Fort with modern air conditioning
The recent record-breaking heat wave with “hottest in the nation” honors for San Angelo remains the talk of the town. So to provide a little topical and tropical data, let us take a few steps back into the frontier before modern conveniences made summer more bearable.
Folks in the 1800s didn't talk or write as much about the weather as we do today, but they certainly knew its effects and implications. In choosing the site for Fort Concho, the officers selected a slightly elevated piece of land that was close enough to the river for access to water, but not so close that a flood would wash away the post. History proved them wise as no San Angelo flood, not even the great one of 1936, ever touched the fort. The elevated site also caught the breezes now blocked by tall buildings and other obstructions that surround Fort Concho today.
The fort's buildings reflected a concern for proper ventilation with many and tall windows, doors on all sides in alignment to catch the breeze, air vents on the roofs of the barracks and hospital, and porches to keep some of the sun off the structures. The soldiers soon discovered that a West Texas summer could hurt you as the first post surgeon, Dr. William Notson, recorded high temperatures of 108 and 110 in the summer of 1869. As we know, the city's former all-time high of 111, recorded on several dates in the 1900s, has most recently been broken with readings up to 115.
Mechanical air conditioning was invented in 1902, but it did not become affordable and widely available until the 1950s. The Army and its soldiers could not conceive of such an invention; thus, they didn't fight the summer: they respected the heat and tried to limit heavy work to the morning hours. While in the field, the bugler sounded reveille as early as 2 a.m. and the troops were underway in the dark and cooler conditions as early as 5 a.m. While this made marching easier, it meant that the troops halted and made camp in respect of the sun by mid-afternoon. As Frances Boyd, an officer's wife in Nevada noted in her memoirs, "the sun penetrated the thin canvas overhead to such an extent that my face was burned as if I had been continually out-of-doors." Having a tan in the 1800s was not a sign of health; indeed it was associated with the poorer classes who had to work outdoors. Thus another officer's wife, Lydia Spencer, was no doubt offended when she wrote that "the hot prairie winds were very trying to a woman's complexion, and (my) husband often compared mine to a new saddle."
Sleeping became a challenge in such conditions. While many diaries of the era note the cooler or refreshing night breezes, the torrid summer weather in South Texas and Arizona gave little relief at night. Some officers' quarters had sleeping porches that might be cooler and soldiers often placed their bunks outside. I can recall many of the Fort Concho Infantry volunteers doing that in 1983 at Fort McKavett when a 100-degree heat wave struck the weekend we were helping them celebrate the centennial of the post's closing. Frontier soldiers knew that Fort Yuma in Arizona ranked as the hottest post in the nation, and the story goes that one soldier who died at the post, returned to the fort the next night to get his blanket as he was cold in his new home in Hades.
Ice and cold drinks, now immediately available, came slowly to the military frontier. At posts in colder climates, ice would be chopped during winter from frozen ponds and rivers, hauled to an underground storage room and insulated in straw. Colonel Grierson had no such option in the summer of 1878 when his daughter Edith was suffering from a burning fever. He telegraphed department headquarters in San Antonio and a rider brought some ice to Fort Concho to alleviate her suffering. The fort did enjoy ice from the Millspaugh Ice House in town by 1885. The huge underground cisterns behind the hospital kept a large amount of water somewhat cool, and many diary references note the use of cloth-wrapped containers called ollas that were kept wet, with the evaporation keeping the water cooler.
Grim as it was, some never lost their sense of humor. Frances Boyd recalled the tale of a missing soldier who left Fort Yuma on a July day and "diligent search served only to discover a huge grease spot and a pile of bones on the parade ground." She thought it more amusing than true that eggs "if not gathered as soon as laid, were sure to be roasted if the sun shone on them." Other officers' wives caught the deadening effect of a lengthy summer on both body and spirit. Martha Summerhayes described the heat as the "breath of a furnace." On the boat taking them to Arizona through the Gulf of California near the Baja, she noted, "thus began another day of intolerable glare and heat. Conversation lagged; no topic seemed to have any interest except the thermometer, which hung in the coolest place on the boat." When the reading hit 122 in the shade, she wrote "I wondered how much more heat human beings could endure."
At Fort Concho today, several of our exhibit buildings enjoy modern air conditioning, including Barracks 6 where the Western Art Show is available with 50 paintings in a truly cool setting. Drop by from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays and on Sundays, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. until August 6.
Those officers' wives would have been amazed and grateful for such conditions, and they would be pleased to see that the Old West is worthy of the painter's brush.
Bob Bluthardt is the Fort Concho manager for the City of San Angelo. Contact him at 325-481-2730 or robert.bluthardt@cosatx.us.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Leisure Times: Art Show at the Fort with modern air conditioning
