Fort McIntosh Historic District at Laredo College

The Army set up Camp Crawford in 1849, a mile west of Laredo beside an old Spanish and Indian river crossing, one of a string of frontier posts named for officers killed in the war with Mexico. By 1850 it carried the name Fort McIntosh, for Lt. Col. James Simmons McIntosh, who died after the Battle of Molino del Rey. The post protected settlers and ranchers from raiders and bandits, and it outlasted nearly a century of border change.

In the Civil War cotton from the interior was hauled through Laredo to Mexico once Union forces threatened Brownsville. In March 1864 Union troops advanced to destroy the stored cotton, and Col. Santos Benavides and his Confederates turned them back at Zacate Creek. After the war federal troops returned to hold the border. The post served through both world wars and closed as an Army installation in 1947, when the site passed to what is now Laredo College.

About 200 acres are a National Register historic district and a state archeological landmark. Standing buildings include Arechiga Hall, a former barracks, a corral of about 1915, officers' quarters restored in 2013, and a chapel built in 1895 and renamed in 2006 for Medal of Honor recipient Private David B. Barkley Cantu. This is a working campus with restricted areas, so walk the grounds, keep to public spaces and ask the college about interiors.