Fort Cummings Adobe Wall Stabilization
Fort Cummings 2024-Present
Location and Background
Fort Cummings is located in Luna County, New Mexico, 15 miles northeast of the town of Deming. The site is accessed via a rough two track dirt road and consists of a number of standing adobe and stone walls, numerous piles of melted adobe, and other historic features. The fort lies between property managed by the Bureau of Land Management and adjacent privately owned property owned by the Hyatt Ranch.
Site History
Fort Cummings was officially in use from late 1863 until the summer of 1887, with several periods of abandonment and reoccupation. An 1870 Report from the Surgeon General’s office described Fort Cummings as “... enclosed by a wall, 10 feet high, composed of adobe. The buildings are one story high, built of adobe and covered with earth.” According to historic plans of the fort, it contained store rooms, offices, corrals, quarters, hospitals, prison, shops, and a sally port.
Cookes spring, a large permanent water source, is located within the boundaries of the historic fort and has served as an important resource for people in the area, stretching back at least 10,000 years. The fort was established in the heart of Apache land and was central in numerous conflicts between American settlers and Indigenous peoples throughout the region.
Scope of Work
Over the course of four in person workshops and one adobe making workshop, Cornerstones volunteers and interns were trained in adobe making, material analysis, and ruins stabilization and preservation. Because of the ways in which remaining walls at the fort had eroded, measures were necessary to prevent collapse and further deterioration of the standing fragments. Participants used various methods to stabilize the walls, including stitching and basal repairs, carving out sections of unstable wall and replacing them with new adobes, cut to size. Since the standing ruins are all exposed wall fragments with no roof or protective covering, sacrificial earthen plaster coats were applied to the walls in an effort to minimize the impacts of moisture and weather to the remains.
Over 160 hours of volunteer participation took place through the duration of the project.
The project highlights broader questions and methods for addressing long term preservation strategies such as backfilling, sheltering and partial reconstruction/renewal and provides the opportunity to set a new paradigm for ruins preservation.
Project Partners
In May of 2025, Cornerstones collaborated with the Albuquerque National Hispanic Cultural Center to host “Adobe Days”, an adobe making workshop that was free and open to the public. Over 40 people attended and helped make over 100 adobes. Many of the adobes that were made at the workshop were used to help stabilize the ruins at Fort Cummings.
The work completed at Fort Cummings in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management wouldn’t have been possible without support from volunteers and interns.
