Site of Shelton's Fort

The Handbook of Texas follows Shelton's Fort into the town of Roxton, and it names the founder differently from the plaque. It says Fort Shelton was established in 1837 on Cane Creek. By 1853 the community was Prairie Mount, about two and a half miles northwest, with its first post office; the office was renamed Roxton in 1869, either for a limestone outcrop or for a rock gate William Klyce built. When the Santa Fe railroad arrived in 1887, most of the town moved half a mile west to the tracks, and the old site became Old Roxton.

What the plaque says

Site of Shelton's Fort In 1837 Jesse Shelton (1782-1855) built a log house and stockade at this site. It served as a way station for pioneer travelers and a stronghold for settlers fleeing Indian raids. Shelton's Fort was designated a Republic of Texas Post Office in 1840. It was also the site of Methodist worship services. Shelton served on the committee to select the first Lamar County Seat and was one of the county's first justices of the peace. In 1851 George McGlasson bought the property. The settlement that grew up in this vicinity became known as McGlasson community. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cooper Lake State Park — 12 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 12 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Eiffel Tower — 13 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.

More markers nearby

• Leroy Nelson DeWitt, Pioneer Citizen — 4.6 mi
• Enloe United Methodist Church — 5.9 mi
• Amy Settlement — 6.4 mi
• Thomas Wilson Stegall — 7.3 mi