Fort McKavett - Fort Clark Military Road

Fort McKavett was half ruined when it reopened in 1868, and its troops lived in tents while Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, arriving in March 1869 with Black soldiers of the Forty-first Infantry, rebuilt it with four barracks, twelve officers' quarters, a hospital, a bakery and a thirty-acre garden, supplied by wagon from San Antonio. It became headquarters of the new Twenty-fourth Infantry, a Buffalo Soldier regiment. In 1871 Gen. William T. Sherman called it the prettiest post in Texas. After 1874 it served as a supply depot until its final abandonment on June 30, 1883.

What the plaque says

Fort McKavett - Fort Clark Military Road FROM NEARBY FT. TERRETT, THIS ROAD IN 1852 LED SOUTH TO FT. CLARK AND NORTH TO FT. McKAVETT. SELECTED MAINLY BECAUSE IT HAD WATER AVAILABLE, IT SERVED AS ROUTE FOR FREIGHT AND MAIL, 1868, WHEN FORTS WERE REACTIVATED. OVER IT WENT TROOPS, SUPPLIES, A FEW IMMIGRANTS AND PIONEER RANCHES. IT WAS NOTED ALSO FOR PASSAGE OF FORAYS OF COL. RANALD MACKENZIE AGAINST THE HOSTILE INDIANS TO THE NORTHWEST. AFTER FORTS WERE ABANDONED IN 1883, RANCHERS DROVE CATTLE TO MARKET OVER PARTS OF THE ROAD. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 16 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Roosevelt — 0.4 mi
• Coalson-Pullen Colony — 3.0 mi
• Captain Gully Cowsert — 4.5 mi
• Doom of the Outlaws of Pegleg Station — 12 mi