Fort Griffin

The Handbook describes the fort in detail. Erath's rangers began it in November 1836 on a half acre near where the Leon and Lampasas rivers meet, with a nine-foot stockade, six or seven cabins and a sixteen-foot blockhouse. The garrison probably never passed twenty men and fought two skirmishes with Comanches in 1837. Soldiers of the Republic's army held the post again from 1840 until the army disbanded in March 1841. Moses Griffin, a nearby settler who kept it up, gave it its later name and eventually dismantled it.

What the plaque says

Fort Griffin Site of a picket fort on Little River commonly called Fort Griffin; also known as Fort Smith and Little River Fort. Erected by Geo. B. Erath and 20 Texas Rangers in November, 1836 as a protection against Indians. Abandoned as a military post before the Santa Fe Expedition camped here, June 24-29, 1841 but used by settlers many years as a place of defense against the Indians.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 7.6 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 24 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 26 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 30 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.

More markers nearby

• Memorial Baptist Church of Temple — 3.4 mi
• Greathouse Cemetery — 4.0 mi
• Site of Dulaney's Mill — 4.2 mi
• Blackland Experiment Station, Substation No. 5 — 5.0 mi