Francisco Fort Museum

Colonel John Francisco built this frontier fort in 1862 at the base of the Spanish Peaks as a trading post and a place to shelter from Ute raids. Now it's a museum in the small town of La Veta.

Francisco Fort was founded as a trading post in 1862 by Colonel John M. Francisco at the foot of the Spanish Peaks in Colorado Territory. The small town of La Veta grew up around the fort, and the adobe structure is the last surviving original adobe fort in the state. The museum complex now includes an 1880s saloon, a schoolhouse built in 1876, a blacksmith shop, adobe ovens, and a large collection of artifacts from the Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo settlers who shaped the region's history. The Spanish Peaks, known to the Ute and Comanche peoples as Huajatolla -- the "Breasts of the Earth" -- loom over the town, and the area's deep multicultural history stretches back centuries before Francisco built his fort.

The museum's most famous ghost is the Floating Lady, a woman dressed in white who has been seen gliding through the west wing of the complex. She moves without sound and appears to drift above the floor before vanishing. A second ghostly woman carries candles as she wanders the halls, and flickering lights throughout the museum have been reported even when the electrical systems are functioning normally. An old piano in the museum has been heard playing music when no one is near it, and an antique rocking chair has been observed swaying back and forth without anyone sitting in it.

While La Veta was long believed to have had a relatively tame history, researchers investigating the museum's ghosts unearthed newspaper articles documenting multiple murders, two lynchings, and several suicides in the area -- a much darker past than the quiet mountain town's reputation suggested. However, the James Randi Educational Foundation investigated the museum and concluded that it was rich in hidden history rather than genuine hauntings. The museum's administration eventually decided to prevent paranormal groups from conducting further investigations on the premises to protect the museum's fragile contents and preserve its focus on history rather than ghost hunting. Whether the Floating Lady is a genuine spirit or an artifact of the imagination, the Francisco Fort Museum remains a fascinating window into Colorado's territorial past in one of the state's most remote and atmospheric valleys.