Hardscrabble

Hardscrabble. Much of this area's early history occurred on nearby trading posts and settlements, which lived and died leaving little trace of their existence. Such was the post built one mile west by Maurice Ledug in the 1830's and the village of Hardscrabble established in the 1840's by traders and trappers below the fork of Hardscrabble and Adobe Creeks.

Hardscrabble's walls and flat-roofed adobe houses formed a protective square in the middle of country long fought over by the Ute and Arapaho Indians. Villagers traded with anyone who happened by, but the tiny community was too far removed from the main-traveled Santa Fe Trail to survive. By late November, 1848, when John C. Fremont and his men briefly visited Hardscrabble on their way west in search of a central railroad route through the mountains, the village was almost deserted.

(1969 sign included) Erected with the Arkansas Valley Chapter, D.A.R., 1969. (2007 sign includes) This replica of the original 1969 historical sign has been erected by Forrest Dorman and the Wetmore-Hardscrabble Genealogical & Historical Society in cooperation with the Fremont/Custer Historical Society, Inc. October 2007.

Hardscrabble - Cuerno Verde - Hardscrabble Trails - Hardscrabble Creek Country