A line of forts on the way out west
Forts Concho, Griffin and Richardson are celebrating their sesquicentennials
One-hundred-fifty, years ago, in 1867, the South was in the middle of reconstruction following the Civil War, with Texas placed in the Fifth Military District with Louisiana. As the farthest state west along the frontier, Texas became the jumping-off spot for settlers, cattle drovers, stages, buffalo hunters and others on their way west. To provide protection for eco- nomic and military interests in the Lone Star State, the U.S. Army began a line of forts situated a two-day-ride apart along this frontier. It was here that the cities and towns of today’s Big Country and Concho Valley regions sprang up.
This year, three of these military posts observe their sesquicentennials: Fort Richardson, Fort Griffin and Fort Concho, catalysts of present-day Jacksboro, Albany and San Angelo. Since their outset, these forts and communities have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship within their respective social and cultural spheres. The three posts share many traits. Each was an offshoot of another military post moved due to lack of water; each was established in December 1867; each was a last supply stop for westbound travelers. And many of the same colorful characters and military commanders spent time in all three locations.
Jack County in 1867
It must have been quite a sight for anyone traversing Jack County between the town of Jacksboro and Fort Richardson during the years the fort was built. Billeting 500 military personnel and more than 150 civilian employees, Richardson was at the time the largest military post in the United States. Jacksboro, by contrast, was small, mostly shacks and dirt streets lined with 27 saloons and brothels such as Mollie McCabe’s Palace of Beautiful Sin. With few diversions, the soldiers spent a good deal of their time and money at these establishments. As one Jacksboro resident wrote, “I am not exaggerating when I say I have seen the time when I could have walked on soldiers lying drunk along the road … and not touch the ground.”
Present-day Jack County judge Mitchell Davenport, an experienced reenactor in living history events along the Texas Forts Trail, portrays two different characters from Fort Richardson’s early days: James Dozier, a military scout, and Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, the man described by Gen. U.S. Grant as “one of its most promising young officers.”
Dozier describes Fort Richardson as “a wild and wooly place on the edge of the frontier and a pretty rough edge at that.” The largest Army and Indian conflict in the area occurred in 1870 in Jack County when an army mail hack was attacked by a large Indian force led by Chief Kicking Bird, who baited a 6th Cavalry detachment from Fort Richardson into an ambush. In a two-day battle the army unit led by Capt. Curwen Boyd McLellan, an experienced Indian fighter, conducted a retreat safely back to the fort. Afterwards 13 of his men were awarded the Medal of Honor for courage under fire, the largest number ever bestowed for a single battle.
Today Jacksboro is a crossroads of economic development in North Texas, with a special event planned in November to commemorate the fort’s 150th anniversary. Lynda Pack, director of the Jacksboro Economic Development Corporation, says Fort Richardson is just as important to the economy these days as it was in 1867. Originally built for protection and to bring order, Fort Richardson also brought people and businesses from around the state and country each year during the five years the post was being built. The letting of contracts once a year sparked an annual boom for the town, while today heritage tourism has a similarly beneficial effect.
Fort Griffin and “The Flat”
Farther down the road is Fort Griffin, another 1867 army post sharing some of the same history, players and qualities of its sister establishment to the north. Eric Abercrombie, program specialist and educator for the fort, says most visitors are already familiar with characters like Doc Holliday, Lottie Deno and Big Nose Kate, who frequented the Flat, a shantytown that flourished below the hilltop fort.
Abercrombie fills in the rest of the story about the fort bringing buffalo hunters to the area, and what life was like for the enlisted men who served there. He notes the economic importance of the fort both in the past and present. Frank Conrad and Charles Rath ran a trading post at what became the town of Fort Griffin that was, Abercrombie says, “the Walmart of the 1870s. It generated over $4,000 of revenue in one day, $2,500 of that in powder and ammo for the buffalo hunters alone” (in an era when a can of corn sold for 30 to 50 cents). During its heyday, Fort Griffin was as large as Fort Worth, with an equal measure of crime and vice, thanks to the Flat. Over a 12-year period 35 men were publicly killed there, prompting historian Carl Coke Rister to claim that “the revolver settled more differences than the judge” and that “straight shooting could promote long life more than fresh air and sunshine.”
The buffalo hunters did plenty of straight shooting, including killing more than 700 bison on one day. With hides fetching two dollars apiece, business was good, eventually bringing 1,500 hunting crews to the fort and nearly wiping out the Southern Plains herd in a few years. As the buffalo disappeared the Indians became ever more agitated, and battles with the Army and the settlers continued through the 1870s until the fort was closed in 1881.
Life at Fort Griffin was rough, with the men living in small wooden huts unshielded from either heat or cold and subsisting on a diet mostly of bacon, beans and molasses broken occasionally by plum pudding and stewed dried apples. So important were the 600 loaves of bread baked daily at the fort that, when at one point the post baker deserted, the entire contin- gent of cavalry was sent to fetch him back.
Today Fort Griffin is a popular attraction, bringing visitors to Albany along the old Butterfield Stage route between Jacksboro to the north and Fort Concho to the south. Home to the Bee Hive restaurant (named for the original saloon at the Flat), Albany also boasts the Old Jail Museum and Art Center, displaying a worldclass collection of works by masters including Calder, Picasso, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Top Left Bakery at Fort Griffin. Top Right A soldier’s closet at Fort Concho. Bottom Left Powder magazine at Fort Griffin.
Bottom Right Chimneys and foundations of enlisted men’s barracks now dot the landscape of Fort Griffin.
A Fort on the Concho
Farther south at the confluence of the Concho, Middle Concho and South Concho Rivers and two creeks is the city of San Angelo, which owns the largest and best-preserved army fort from that era, Fort Concho. Several years in the building, Fort Concho became the focal point of U.S. Army operations on the North Texas frontier. It offered protection for settlers and stages, and it provided good business for local civilian contractors who cut prairie grass from as far away as 40 miles to sell as hay to the military, while other enterprising merchants supplied mesquite wood and beef. Like Griffin and Richardson, Fort Concho attracted more exotic establishments such as Miss Hattie’s, a “ladies of the evening parlor house and saloon” where soldiers and civilians alike were entertained. Today a museum in downtown San Angelo, along with a restaurant of the same name, recall the legacy of Miss Hattie’s. Recent renovations in the downtown area uncovered tunnels linking the original bordello with two of the town’s businesses of the era. According to Bob
Bluthardt, director of Fort Concho, the city’s economic, cultural and social fortunes were closely tied to the presence of the army from the start. Today 60,000 to 70,000 visitors a year come to the fort from around the world and all 50 states, he says, bringing a richness and variety to San Angelo. “We believe what we do makes San Angelo a fun place to live and work,” says Bluthardt. “Concerts, camps, special events and art exhibits are just some of the attractions we host.”
Another thread connecting these three forts was the posting of the most highly regarded Indian fight- er on the frontier, Ranald S. Mackenzie. Stationed at Fort Concho after stints at Richardson and Griffin, Mackenzie was instrumental in ending the Indian wars. Another notable stationed at Concho was Gen. Benjamin Grierson, whose Civil War accomplishments were portrayed by John Wayne in The Horse Soldiers, a 1959 John Ford film. Grierson’s wife, Alice, is equally well known for her voluminous collection of letters written during her time at Concho and collected in the fort’s archives as a research project for a new exhibit.
The women of Fort Concho regularly organized hops or dances, and the wife of post surgeon James W. Buell wrote of one such occasion. “We went to a little dance Friday evening at General Grierson’s and I nearly killed myself with laughing,” she noted. “It was a regular frontier dance with the most ridiculous quadrilles, and everyone danced.”
FORT CONCHO DAYS (clockwise from top left) Cavalry re-enactors rest in front of the fort; table set for dinner in an officer’s quarters; enlisted men’s barracks; enlisted men’s barracks..
After the Army
When the army left Fort Concho in 1899, San Angelo continued to grow as a trading center. Over the years the fort’s buildings were put to various uses, with the commissary becoming a warehouse, the officer’s mess hall a mattress factory, and one of the barracks a hotel. In 1935 the city took over a history museum started by San Angelo resident Ginevra Wood Carson and began acquiring land and restoring the buildings. Since the fort’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1961, improvements and restoration have continued.
Today Fort Concho hosts frequent events for a wide range of constituents, from the meetings of five different historical agencies to participation in the local summer Kids Eat Free lunch program. “Our presence gives us a reason to provide for our community,” Bluthardt notes. “The biggest challenge for all history museums is how to get people interested in history. For us to remain relevant we have to be open to working with a wide variety of events and programs. We have to be creative.”
The challenge faced by these three one-time frontier forts when first built was how to secure an untamed land while forging partnerships with local enterprise. One hundred fifty years later, the mission continues, as each contributes significantly to its community and economy today.
