Fort Wayne

The Oklahoma Historical Society's encyclopedia tells the founding differently from the stone. Soldiers of the 7th Infantry under Capt. John Stuart began the post in the fall of 1838 as Camp Illinois, replacing Fort Coffee, and Lt. Col. Richard B. Mason's 1st Dragoons moved it in July 1840 to Spavinaw Creek near Maysville. Its work was to guard a military road linking the frontier forts and to calm Arkansas fears. Maj. Ethan Allen Hitchcock recommended closing it, and it was abandoned in May 1842. No permanent buildings went up at either site, and no ruins remain.

What the plaque says

Fort Wayne Established in 1838 by Lt. Col. R.B. Mason, 1st Dragoons, U.S. Army, at request of Arkansas citizens fear- ing Cherokees who were being re- moved from southeastern U.S. Named in honor of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the fort was originally located in NE corner of present-day Watts on a hill overlooking Illinois River. Considered poor location because many soldiers died there, includ- ing Capt. John Stuart, 7th Infantry. In 1839, fort was abandoned and moved to Beatie's Prairie west of Maysville, Arkansas. That site aban- doned in 1842 and troops moved north to establish Fort Scott, Kansas. Oklahoma Historical Society 65-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Saline Courthouse Museum — 25 mi
  The one Cherokee district courthouse of nine still standing, an 1884 building near Rose that the Cherokee Nation bought back and opened as a museum in 2019.
• Cherokee National History Museum — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• Baptist Mission — 4.9 mi
• Robert Rogers — 4.9 mi
• Fort Wayne — 22 mi