Fort Lancaster
by Bob Miles
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Texas Historical Commission
Fort Lancaster was established in 1855 by the
United States government as a protection to
travelers and mail on the Overland route from San
Antonio to San Diego. It was abandoned in 1861
and reoccupied in 1866 for a short time.
A
few miles east of the little town of
Sheffield on State Highway 290 lies Fort
Lancaster State Park. Currently admin-
istered by the Texas Historical Commission,
the 82-acre historic site preserves the ruins of
the fort and interprets the frontier military post
that helped protect commerce and travelers on
the San Antonio-El Paso road.
The mid-1800s were important years for the
United States and especially for Far West
Texas. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
ended the Mexican War in 1848, adding some
million square miles of land in the Southwest
and California to the United States and finally
establishing the Texas border at the Rio
Grande. When the news of the discovery of
gold in California reached the east, hordes of
gold seekers headed west across the new, large-
ly unexplored territory. Native tribes objected to
this invasion of their homelands, creating addi-
tional problems for the Army which had a
treaty obligation to keep the Indian tribes from
raiding into Mexico.
In response to these problems. a string of mil-
itary forts was established along what became
known as the Lower or Military Road between
San Antonio and El Paso. Camp Lancaster was
established on August 29, l855, on Live Oak
Creek near the Pecos River crossing. The post
was manned by 104 men of Companies H and
K of the First Infantry under the command of
Captain Stephen Carpenter and two second
lieutenants.
In addition to patrolling the Lower Road
between Fort Clark and Fort Davis and protect-
ing travelers, the troops set about building living
quarters and other needed structures. The first
living quarters for the men were mostly primi-
tive jacales –vertical pickets or planks set into the
ground and roofed with grass thatch or canvas.
Four adobe officer’s quarters were constructed
and the quartermaster and commissary stores
were built with stone walls. The bakery, car-
penter shop, hospital and several other build-
ings were also built of adobe. All were roofed
with thatch or canvas. There were also several
Turnley Portable Buildings erected on the post.
These were an early prefabricated structure.
These unassembled buildings could be trans-
ported by wagon and assembled in a matter of
hours, complete with asphalt covered panels for
roofs.
Once the troops had continued on page 27
Cenizo
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