Fort Robinson

The month that named this post brought two killings. In February 1874 Frank Appleton of the agency staff was killed at the Red Cloud Agency, and Lt. Levi H. Robinson of the 14th Infantry was ambushed escorting a wood train out of Fort Laramie. The Army sent 949 men from Fort D. A. Russell and Fort Laramie, who reached the agency in March and pitched tents. Their first commander was Capt. Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas MacArthur. The post was built without outer walls, and longtime curator Tom Buecker often heard visitors ask, where's the fort?

What the plaque says

Fort Robinson In March, 1874, the U.S. Government authorized the establishment of a military camp at the Red Cloud Indian Agency on the White River. Home of some 13,000 Indians, many of whom were hostile, the Agency was one of the most troublesome spots on the Plains. The camp was named Camp Robinson in honor of Lt. Levi H. Robinson, who had been killed by Indians the previous month. In May, the camp was re-located on this site, and in January, 1878, was officially designated Fort Robinson. Fort Robinson played an important role in the Indian wars from 1876 to 1890. Crazy Horse sur- rendered here on May 6, 1877, and was mortally wounded that September while resisting imprisonment. In January, 1879, the Fort was the scene of a major battle as the result of the Cheyenne Outbreak led by Chief Dull Knife. In the 20th Century, Fort Robinson became the world's largest military remount depot, and during the second World War, was the site of a K-9 corps training center, and German prisoner-of-war camp. The Fort's deactivation following the war, marked the end of more than 70 years of service as Nebraska's "outpost on the plains." Howard Dodd Memorial Fund, Crawford Historical Society Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Robinson State Park — 0.2 mi
  The army post beside the Red Cloud Agency where Crazy Horse was bayoneted in 1877 and Morning Star's Northern Cheyenne broke out into the January cold of 1879.
• Toadstool Geologic Park — 14 mi
  A pocket of badlands in the Oglala National Grassland where sandstone caps balance on clay stems, ancient tracks cross the rock, and a trail leads on to a 10,000-year-old bison bone bed.
• Agate Fossil Beds National Monument — 21 mi
  A fossil quarry on the Niobrara that also keeps the gifts Red Cloud and other Lakota and Cheyenne visitors gave the ranching family who were their friends for thirty-five years.

More markers nearby

• Officers' Row, 1874-1875 — steps away
• The Flight of the Cheyennes — steps away
• 1909 Brick Barracks — steps away
• 1887 Barracks Row — 0.2 mi