Fort Washita Historic Site

The Chickasaw Nation tells Fort Washita as a treaty obligation. When it was built in 1842, as the southwesternmost military post of the United States, the Chickasaw had only recently come west, and their new home faced attacks by Republic of Texas militia, raids by some Plains nations over disputed hunting grounds, unscrupulous intruders and the traders and trappers who passed through. The fort's mission, in the Nation's words, was to maintain peace for the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations within their new lands.

It served as a United States post until the Civil War began in 1861 and was held by Confederate forces through 1865, and the Confederates nearly destroyed it as they left. After the war the fort was granted to the Chickasaw Nation, and the Dawes Commission later allotted it, with the land around it, to Charles and Abbie Davis Colbert and their family. The Oklahoma Historical Society acquired it in 1962 and restored it as a historic site and museum. In 2016 the Nation took over its management in partnership with the society, and in 2017 the Chickasaw Nation bought the site. It is a National Historic Landmark.

Visitors walk among restored and rebuilt structures, among them a log officers' quarters from the first years. The Nation holds Civil War reenactments, a yearly fur trade era rendezvous, storytelling, outdoor movies and seasonal events, and group tours must be booked ahead. The site is on State Highway 199, thirteen miles east of Madill and sixteen miles west of Durant, inside the Chickasaw Nation.