Fort Duchesne declined in use from 1890 to 1910. In 1893 the four infantry companies were removed to Fort Douglas. By 1909 there was only one company of cavalry left. In 1910 the inspecting officer of the U.S. Army "found no military reason why Fort Duchesne, Utah should be continued as a military post." On 13 September 1912 Troop M of the First Cavalry, the last remaining unit at the reservation, left Fort Duchesne for Fort Boise, Idaho. The Indian Service consolidated its Uintah and Ouray operations at Fort Duchesne after the fort's abandonment by the army. The buildings that had been constructed to control the Indians were at last used to assist them.

See: Thomas G. Alexander and Leonard S. Arrington, "The Utah Military Frontier, 1872-1912: Forts Cameron, Thornburgh, and Duchesne," Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (Fall 1964); June Lyman and Norma Denver, compilers, Ute People: An Historical Study (1970); Couben and Geneva Wright, "Indian White Relations in the Uintah Basin," Utah Humanities Review 2 (October 1948).

David L. Schirer