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| "Anything PC" by George PC & TECHNOLOGY HELP PC slowed down? We can tune it up & do anything PC 281-300-7177 Johnson City, TX info@cofran.com www.cofran.com |
Cofran's Texas . . .
Hill Country Portal
Email: info@hillcountryportal.com
Web: www.HillCountryPortal.com
A Powerful Information Database & Gateway Service for the Texas Hill Country
HILL COUNTRY HISTORIC MILITARY FORTS
In the early days of settling what was to become the Texas Hill Country, military forts were established to protect the pioneers from the Indians. Several of these forts remain as treasures for us to explore and interpret in understanding the hardships of frontier life.
Fort Mason and Fort McKavett are included in the Texas Forts Trail: www.texasfortstrail.com
For directory listings by city or topic profile, click: Index of Cities & Focus Topics
We welcome submission of updates, additions, corrections & digital photos, without compensation.
| FORTS LISTED BY FORT NAME |
FORT CROGHAN: 512-756-8281; at 703 Buchanan Drive (Hwy 29W), Burnet, TX 78611; www.fortcroghan.org. info@fortcroghan.org. Established in 1849, Fort Croghan was the third of the first four forts established by the US government to protect settlements from hostile Indians. From 1849 until its decommission in 1853, Fort Croghan was the home to Company C, 8th Inf, USA. (mounted) and eventually became the headquarters of the Second Dragoon Regiment. Today's Fort Croghan is representative of those early days of what was to become Burnet. See the sights and imagine the sounds of the frontier as you visit the blacksmith's shop, the one room school house, the powder house or the stage coach stop. The museum has over 1200 historic artifacts from in and around the Burnet County area. Visit the Texas frontier as it once was. Admission is free. Donations accepted. Open April through August, Thur-Sat, 10a-5p. Group tours, call for reservation. Map
FORT MCKAVETT STATE HISTORICAL SITE: 325-396-2358; On 7066 FM 864, Ft. McKavett, TX 76841. An 82 acre park facility 22 mi SW of Menard on W edge of Menard County, governed by the State Historical Commission. Open daily to the public, 8a-5p. Established in 1852. General William T. Sherman called Fort McKavett "the prettiest post in Texas.", 1874. Part of a chain of military posts designed to control the native population and protect immigrants and settlers traveling the road between San Antonio and El Paso. Today it is one of the best preserved and most intact examples of a Texas Indian wars frontier post. Overlooks San Saba river. Web. Included in the Texas Forts Trail: Web; www.visitfortmckavett.com
SAN SABA PRESIDIO: These ruins of a Spanish fort built in 1751 to protect the nearby mission are located 2 mi NW of downtown Menard on the San Saba River banks, off Hwy 190, now maintained as a county park. Also known as: "Presidio San Saba"; "Presidio de San Luis de las Amarillas". Open year-round, self-guided tour with exhibit sign. History, More History, Photos
FACTOID: An unsuccessful Spanish mission, San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz, was established by Franciscans in Camp Wood in 1762, and in 1857 a U.S. Army post was founded, from which the present-day active community took its name. See history and photos in more detail about the US Calvary and the Texas Rangers at the Camp Wood Texas Sesquicentennial Minute: History & Audio
| HISTORIC FORTS VERY NEAR THE HILL COUNTRY |
CAMP SABINAL: 1 mi W of Sabinal, Hwy 90, S of Utopia. Handbook of Texas Profile: ". on the west bank of the Sabinal River . . was established by Capt. Albert G. Brackett on July 12, 1856, to provide protection for commercial traffic and travelers from San Antonio to El Paso. Among the people to settle nearby were John Kenedy, who built a store near the camp, Louis Peter, and Peter Rheiner, future father-in-law of Vice President John Nance Garner. Remnants of structures built by these settlers were still in evidence when the Texas Centennial Commission placed a marker at the site in 1936. By the summer of 1856 the Second United States Cavalry, commanded by Col. Albert S. Johnston and stationed at Fort Mason, was the lone mounted unit left in Texas. Johnston distributed the six companies under his command to different outposts along the Texas frontier; Company I was assigned to Camp Sabinal. The fort was occupied by United States troops until November 1856, and later served as a Texas Ranger camp. The Second Cavalry and Company I were under the command of Robert E. Lee for three months in late 1857 and again near the end of 1860."
FORT CLARK: Fort Clark, located on US Hwy 90 on the E side of Brackettville, was established June 20, 1852 at Las Moras Springs.
Handbook Of Texas: Profile
Fort Tours: Profile
FORT INGE: Located near Uvalde, in Uvalde County.
Summary from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Inge): It was a frontier fort established as Camp Leona on March 13, 1849. The fort served as a base for troops assigned to protect the southern overland mail route from Indian raids. The camp was renamed Fort Inge in honor of Lieutenant Zebulon M. P. Inge, a West Point officer killed in the Mexican-American War. There were two wooden barracks with thatched roofs that quartered the soldiers assigned to the fort. There was also a large limestone building that served as commissary and later a hospital. The fort was surrounded on three sides by a stacked stone wall added sometime around the Civil War. The wall was dismantled in 1874 and the stone used to build a dam on the Leona River. The wall was re-laid along its original lines in 1984.
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II was posted to Fort Inge in the early 1850s, and his letters from there are preserved by the Maryland Historical Society.
The United States Army garrisoned the fort until March 19, 1869, when the garrison was transferred to Fort McKavett (see above). The army recovered materials from the site to use for additions to nearby Fort Clark (see above). Fort Inge then saw use as a camp by the Texas Rangers until 1884.
In 1961, the site became the Fort Inge Historical Site County Park. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 1985. The site is located on the Leona River and is dominated by the 140-foot (43 m) high remains of an extinct volcano named Mount Inge.
Coordinates: 29° 10' 45" N, 99° 45' 57" W; 29.17917° N 99.76583° W
Handbook Of Texas: Profile
Fort Wiki: http://fortwiki.com/Fort_Inge
US Forting: Profile
| ACTIVE MILITARY INSTALLATIONS VERY NEAR THE HILL COUNTRY |
There are no active military installations in the Hill Country, but there are many very nearby.
Some of these include:
ARMY:
Fort Hood (Killeen), Largest US military installation, Profile
Camp Bullis (San Antonio), Profile
AIR FORCE:
Brooks City-Base (San Antonio); formerly a military post, now locally owned and operated. Profile
Lackland AFB (San Antonio), Profile
Randolf AFB (San Antonio), Profile
TEXAS MILITARY FORCES:
Camp Mabry (Austin); US National Registry of Historic Places, Profile
| OTHER FORT RESOURCES |
FORT TOURS: www.forttours.com
(THE) TEXAS OLD MISSIONS & FORTS RESTORATION ASSOCIATION (TOMFRA): www.tomfra.org
US FORTING: http://usforting.com
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