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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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FORT WASHITA
Oklahoma
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Location: Bryan County, on Okla. 199 just east of
the Lake Texhoma Bridge, about 11 miles northwest of Durant.
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The history of this fort differs considerably from
that of most others on the frontier. Founded at the request of the
Indians, it usually protected rather than fought them. It was also
established much later and had a lesser role in Indian affairs than the
majority of its counterparts.
Although the post was one of those on the "Permanent
Indian Frontier," it was not activated until April 1842, long after all
the others except Fort Scott, established the following month.
Representing an advance from the Fort Gibson-Fort Towson line, it was
founded by Fort Towson troops on the Washita River about 20 miles above
the confluence with the Red River in response to Choctaw and Chickasaw
demands for the security guaranteed them in their relocation treaties.
Two of the Five Civilized Tribes, in the 1830's they had been removed
from their homelands in Alabama and Mississippi to southeastern Indian
Territory. There they had settled in the fertile valleys of the Blue,
Washita, and Boggy Rivers. But they had grown fearful because of the
continual raids of Plains Indians; the Kickapoos, Delawares, Osages, and
Pawnees, whom they had replaced; and irate Texas settlers and roving
outlaws.
As soon as the fort was constructed, traders began
operating in the area, and before long steamers were running from the
Fort Towson landing up the Red and Washita Rivers to within a mile of
Fort Washita. The tempo of life at the post accelerated during the
Mexican War (1846-48), during which it served as a staging area and
communications link. Another stimulus came in 1849, when Capt. Randolph
B. Marcy, from his base at Fort Smith, Ark., pioneered the Fort Smith-El
Paso Route. Replacing in importance the Fort Smith-Santa Fe segment of
the Southern Overland Trail, it came to be crowded by gold seekers on
their way to California. Fort Washita was a way station and
outfitting point for emigrants, stage operators, and freighters. Further
enhancing its eminence as a transportation center was its location in
southeastern Indian Territory at the crossroads to Texas and the Plains
and not far from the Texas Road, which connected the Missouri River
Valley and Texas.
By 1858 a network of forts farther west had been
activated and the frontier had bypassed the fort, in a dilapidated
condition and manned by a skeleton force. But in December that year
increasing North-South tensions caused its regarrisoning. In the spring
of 1861 the Army considered concentrating forces there to repel a
threatened invasion of the area from Texas, but the pro-Southern
sympathies of the Choctaws and Chickasaws and the fort's isolation from
other posts and supply centers made the plan untenable. In April 1861
Federal troops departed, never to return. Moving in the next day, the
Confederates used the fort as a headquarters, supply depot, and refugee
camp for displaced Indians. After the war, settlers apparently burned
the buildings to deny them to bandits. In 1870 the military reservation
reverted to the Chickasaw Nation. Eventually vandals made off with most
of the buildings and the surrounding wall, leaving only desolate ruins,
later used as cattle pens.
The Oklahoma Historical Society, aided by private
contributions, purchased the 115-acre site in 1962 and appointed the
Fort Washita Commission to maintain it. The commission has stabilized
and partially restored the ruins, erected markers to identify sites, and
removed excess timber to restore the historical prairie environment.
Extant are the remains of 48 shell limestone buildings, which replaced
the original log and frame structures. They date back as far as the
1850's, when the stone wall was erected around the post. Included are
the officers' quarters and adjoining utility structures, the west and
south barracks, the commissary warehouse, and the quartermaster stables.
The restored eastern end of the south barracks serves as a visitor
center. Gravel pathways lead to the post cemetery, the well, an old
log cabin reputedly the post-Civil War home of the Confederate Gen.
Douglas H. Cooper, the Confederate cemetery, a spring, and the ruins of
the ghost town of Hatsboro.
NHL Designation: 06/23/65
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb26.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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