Fort Clark

Fort Clark's stone post was a long time coming. The army leased the land from 1852 and did not secure a deed until 1884, when Mary A. Maverick was paid $80,000 for the 3,965-acre tract. Between 1873 and 1875 most of the buildings that still stand went up in quarried limestone, with stone quarters for more than 200 officers and men. In 1882 Gen. William T. Sherman called it the largest and most costly military post in Texas, if not the United States, and thought it should close. The War Department built a granary instead.

What the plaque says

Fort Clark A strategic installation in the U.S. Army's line of forts along the military road stretching from San Antonio to El Paso, Fort Clark was established in June 1852. Located near natural springs and Las Moras Creek, its site was considered a point of primary importance to the defense of frontier settlements and control of the U.S. Mexico border. Many infantry regiments and almost all cavalry regiments were at one time based at Fort Clark, as well as companies of Texas Rangers and Confederate troops during the Civil War. The Army's Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts also were assigned to Fort Clark, and with black troops of the 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th infantry played a decisive role in the Indian campaigns of the 1870s. Prominent military leaders who served here include Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, Gen. Wesley Merritt, Gen. William R. Shafter, Gen. John L. Bullis, Gen. Zenas R. Bliss, Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, and Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. Fort Clark remained a horse-cavalry post for the U.S. Army through World War II and finally was inactivated in 1946. The fort property, including many native stone buildings constructed by civilian craftsmen in the 1870s, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Clark and the Old Guardhouse Museum — steps away
  The 1852 post at Las Moras Springs, home from 1872 to 1914 of the Black Seminole scouts, now a gated resort with its old guardhouse open as a museum on weekends.
• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 21 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.

More markers nearby

• Military Roads in Texas — steps away
• 2nd Cavalry Division at Fort Clark — steps away
• Fort Clark, U.S.A. — 0.3 mi
• Site of Original Post Cemetery — 0.4 mi