Fort Gibson

In its first decade the post was the base for federal attempts to reach the southern Plains nations. When newly removed eastern nations complained of hostility from Plains peoples and the Osage, a commission chaired by Montfort Stokes, a former governor of North Carolina, convened here. An 1832 expedition marched west and found no Plains camps, though Washington Irving recorded it in A Tour on the Prairies; an 1833 march met no one either. The 1834 dragoon expedition made contact and led to the first treaty with southern Plains nations, though lasting peace took more than thirty-five years.

What the plaque says

Fort Gibson Founded April 21, 1824, by Col. Matthew Arbuckle, 7th. Inf., farthest west in chain of forts, north to south, to guard western frontier. Named for Col.George Gibson. More than 100 West Point graduates, including Lt. Jefferson Davis, served at Ft. Gibson during 26 yrs. before Civil War. Hdqtrs. of Gen.Zachary Taylor, 1841. Aban- doned as military post, 1890. Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1949

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Gibson Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  The army's first post in what became Oklahoma, built at Three Forks in 1824, where removed nations arrived; deeded to the Cherokee in 1857, it later housed the Dawes Commission.
• Cherokee National History Museum — 18 mi
  The Cherokee Nation's own history museum, in the brick capitol it built on Tahlequah's square after the Civil War, a short walk from its 1844 supreme court and its 1875 prison.
• Honey Springs Battlefield — 23 mi
  The July 17, 1863 battlefield on the Texas Road, the largest fight in Indian Territory, where Cherokee and Muscogee regiments fought on both sides and the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry held.

More markers nearby

• Fort Davis — 4.8 mi
• Wigwam Neosho — 8.8 mi
• Chief Pushmataha — 8.8 mi
• Tullahassee Mission — 8.8 mi