Only mounds of earth and crumbling ruins remain of it now, but while it stood, Fort Buchanan signified the fulfilment of Manifest Destiny, the last part of America now in American hands – a continent stretching, as the founders envisioned, from sea to sea. The Gadsden Purchase made it complete, negotiated by the American minister to Mexico, James Gadsden: 29,000 miles of pristine Southwestern land, worth $10 million. To solidify their hold on the new territory, the U.S. began construction of a series of forts along a rail line.

On this day, November 17, in 1856, with the completion of Fort Buchanan (named in honor of the president), the U.S. solidified its control over the Gadsden Purchase, and more symbolically, fulfilled its expansionist destiny.

The fort stood until the Civil War, when its garrison was moved closer to the front lines in New Mexico. To keep it from falling into Confederate hands, Fort Buchanan was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. The following year, California Volunteers created a nearby Camp Crittenden, but not much remains today from either location. Today, the land is mainly used for grazing.