Cantonment

The post went up because a band of Northern Cheyenne had left the reservation in September 1878, and it lost its purpose once they were removed from Indian Territory. In 1882 the Interior Department let Mennonite missionaries run it as a boarding school for Cheyenne and Arapaho children. Rodolphe Petter, a linguist as well as a missionary, published his English-Cheyenne Dictionary while at Cantonment and, with his wives Marie and Bertha, completed translations of the whole New Testament. The boarding school closed in 1927, and Canton Lake has since covered much of the site.

What the plaque says

Cantonment Site about 2 mi. N. Post established on Cheyenne- Arapaho reservation, March 6, 1879, by 23rd Inf., under Col. Richard Dodge. He completed his book "Our Wild Indians" there. Post abandoned in June, 1882. Stone buildings were part of Mennonite mission, Rev. S.S. Haury, Supt., for many years; U.S. Indian school, 1897; Indian Agency, 1903. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1950

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Roman Nose State Park — 13 mi
  A canyon of gypsum cliffs and three springs north of Watonga, one of Oklahoma's first seven state parks, named for Henry Roman Nose, a Cheyenne chief who survived Fort Marion.
• Gloss Mountain State Park — 22 mi
  Red buttes of the Blaine Escarpment beside US-412, capped with gypsum whose selenite flashes in the sun, with a trail up Cathedral Mountain and a park kept by its neighbours.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps and Roman Nose State Park — 13 mi