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Fort Frowned on Hill

THE corner of North Broadway and Fort Moore street-
At
directly above the Broadway tunnel-is a bronze tablet im-
bedded in a granite boulder. Here is historic ground, for
he who reads the inscription may learn:
"Fort Moore erected on this site in 1847 by United
States Troops. The first celebration of Independence
Day in California was held here July 4th, 1847."
The tablet was placed by the Eschscholtzia Chapter, Daughters
of the American Revolution, July 4, 1916, and is the only identi-
fying mark in a peaceful residential section to recall the stirring
military activities once centered upon the commanding elevation.
The fortifications long ago disappeared with their need.
Fort Moore was preceded by an earlier protective project de-
signed by Lieutenant W. H. Emory, topographical engineer of
General Stephen Kearney's staff. The construction was begun by
sailors and marines of Commodore Stockton's forces but never
completed or given a fort name.
The second fort, dedicated July 4, 1847, by order of Colonel
]. B. Stevenson, was built by the Mormon Battalion after plans of
Lieutenant J. W. Davidson and named in honor of Captain Benja-
min D. Moore, who was killed in the Battle of San Pasqual. The
pride of the fort was a flagstaff 150 feet high, the combination of
two giant trees laboriously hauled by oxen from the San Bernar-
dino mountains. For years this pole stood before shattering in
the blast of a windstorm.