Fort Elliott Flagpole

The pole first stood over a post built mostly of wood on stone. By 1878 Fort Elliott had a commander's residence, six sets of officers' quarters, five company barracks, a twelve-bed hospital, a headquarters and a combined chapel and school, all one-story frame buildings on stone foundations. No stockade was thought necessary. The headquarters burned in 1879, the post's only serious fire, and was replaced, and there was little other building. Except in its first months the garrison normally numbered slightly fewer than 200 men, and J. J. Long's general store was photographed in Mobeetie in 1880.

What the plaque says

Fort Elliott Flagpole First stood about a mile to the northwest, at Fort Elliott, established 1875 to protect the Texas Panhandle from Indians. J. J. Long, teamster-merchant, who arrived with the soldiers, was hired to provide a flagpole for the fort. In cedar breaks near Antelope Hills, 30 miles away, he cut two huge trees and hauled them here by wagon to build this 50-foot pole. After Fort Elliott closed in 1890, Long bought the pole and placed it in front of his store. Later, at Mobeetie school for 20 years; it was erected here 1949. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 0.7 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.
• Roberts County Museum — 17 mi
  The county museum in Miami's old Santa Fe depot, holding mammoth bones and Clovis points from a 1934 dig, in the cow town that has held a cow-calling contest since 1949.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 21 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 21 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.

More markers nearby

• Temple Lea Houston — steps away
• Frank Willis, Sr. — steps away
• Emanuel Dubbs — steps away
• Captain G. W. Arrington — steps away