Fort McKavett State Historic Site, near Menard, TX

Biker Bear Chick and My Sweetie

After leaving South Llano River State Park, we decided to take a side trip up from I-10 on Ranch Road 1674 to visit Fort McKavett State Historic Site. Right where RR 1674 and RR 864 kind of run into each other, you see some ruins of the old fort. Pull on in and find a parking space. It ain't real crowded.

We walked up the crushed granite walkway until we reached the building I assumed to be the Visitor's Center. An overhead sign, painted like you'd think they print back in the day, informed my Sweetie and me that this was the "Hospital". Fortunately, there was another, more modern sign indication the Visitor's Center was also in the building.

As it turns out, this was the hospital building from the old fort. Anyway, we headed on in and paid our $4.00 each to the Texas Historical Commission so we could ethically and legally wander around the grounds and buildings. The first thing we did, however, was to wander through their displays which showed us the history of, not only this fort, but the entire series of fort buildings that took place throughout Texas.

Fort McKavett became the home of the U.S. 8th Infantry in 1852. Serving to protect new settlers from Comanche Indians and as a rest stop for gold-seeking, California-bound travelers, the fort only stayed active until 1859. Once Fort McKavett became inactive, settlers left in droves, returning to safer havens further east.

After the War Between The States (or perhaps, The Recent Unpleasantness), the U.S. Army reopened the fort once conflict between the new settlers and the Comanche Indians resumed. Members of the fort were required to scout the area from the fort all of the way to Fort Concho in the northwest, the Pecos River to the west, and almost to the Rio Grande River in the south. Scouting parties consisting of between two and 20 soldiers (sometimes more) would be sent out for times ranging from overnight to over three weeks. Some of the longer scouting missions required more rations that would be initially provided so the senior officer would have to plan to have chuck wagons become part of the scouting party.

In 1875, hostilities were resolved (sending the Comanche to Oklahoma) and the Army just abandoned the fort. Settlers moved into the vacant buildings and the town of Fort McKavett was formed. The town stayed active until the last residents moved out in 1973 thus creating a new ghost town for Texas.

We decide to go explore a few of the buildings that are actually open to the public and the first one we get to happens to be the school. At Fort McKavett, all persons were educated regardless of color, ethnicity, status, or military member. The Buffalo Soldiers were given classes in reading, arithmetic, writing, art, etc. And as you can see from this photo, My Sweetie was just a bit chilly today! Unfortunately, the wood burning stoves weren't burning wood.

The next building we entered, the administrative building, contained a table or two and this great buffalo head. As My Sweetie is fond of saying that I enjoy seeing anything that is, could be, or used to be food, I couldn't resist getting my picture taken with it. I only wished I'd found a stool or ladder or something so I'd be more or less on level with this art object. I would even have given it a big ol' country hug just to make sure it knew I liked it!

As we were leaving, the entire staff (one lady) mentioned that we might like to take a tour on their discovery path which lead to Government Springs (where the women had to travel to get water each day) and to the lime kiln (my Sweetie thought I said "lion kill" and we had a real conversation that was confusing to both of us. "What lion?" I asked. She replied, "The one that was killed. Was it next to the road?" "What lion are you talking about?" "The one you mentioned that was on the path." And so on and so forth.).

We headed out on the "trail" to discover that this trail, at one time, had been lined with rocks and was about 3/5 to 4 feet wide. Unfortunately, the entire trail had been overgrown with a very pretty little purple flower (pictured at the right) and lots of other wild flowers and what normal people would call "weeds." Following this trail was not only difficult from the viewpoint of finding the correct path, it was also a little rugged. At one point, the trail tapered off to a river bed which, when fully engaged, would have been a wonderfully violent white water rapids. My Sweetie trudged down to see the springs (the staff told me that the springs still ran) but informed me that it was really, really dry down there. The San Saba River must be getting fed from more than this one spring.

Along the path we found several informational posts about the critters in the area. We were very disappointed to find that none of the animals we learned about were in view.

Here, My Sweetie is trying to find the hawk mentioned in the informational post in front of here.  However, she was very happy that the subject of the post about the western diamondback rattlesnake was not in the general area.

Overall, we totally enjoyed out time here at Fort McKavett State Historical Site. We had the entire park to ourselves. So, if you are interested in the history of forts throughout the state of Texas or if you just like to be out in the country or if you just like to take time away from your busy life, go visit this site.

Find more about this fort at www.VisitFortMcKavett.com