Two Miles Southwest to Fort Belknap

The town of Belknap grew up half a mile east of the fort. At first it was little more than a trading post and a post office, opened on August 14, 1856. With the army providing security it grew quickly, and by 1859 it had five general stores, two blacksmith shops, a hotel, a billiard parlor, a school that met at the fort and 150 people. The Civil War ended that prosperity. The post office reopened in 1874, and in 1892 the town had a hotel, several stores and 125 people. It merged into Newcastle in 1908.

What the plaque says

Two miles southwest to Fort Belknap. Established in 1850 - The largest military post in Northern Texas - Until the Civil War the first county seat of Young County - A station on the Southern Overland Mail Line connecting St. Louis and San Francisco 1858-1861

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Belknap — 1.8 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 10.0 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Harmonson Rancho — 1.4 mi
• Joseph Alfred Woolfolk — 1.6 mi
• Camp Belknap, C.S.A. — 1.8 mi
• Major Robert Simpson Neighbors — 1.8 mi