The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-02-03
He WAS
ALLOTTED A
WHOLE FORT
One Chickasaw Indian Sc
cures Ancient Fl. WaShita.
ITS PRESENT CONDITION
Marble Steps Which Lead TO
Great RoofleSS Halls.

Europeans say that America has no
ruins The criticism is too general. for
America mas. Down in the Indian terri
tory, within a few hours ride Of Wich-
ita, there is a majestic pile Of stone
covered with ivy, with the bats dartlng
through its blind windows and the hawks
perched high on its battlements, and
over it and through it the silent football
Of forgetfulness, and to the beholder a
little effort to invent scene and set It
in motion among these tombs Of old and
forgotten Fort Washita-
Newton Bridgman OF this city, who is
with the appraising corps Of the Dawes
commission, recently heard Of this an
Gent fort. and ran out to see it, and to
a reporter for the Eagle said yesterday:
Il guess the government has forgotten
Fort Washita At all events it has for
saken it. heard about it and wanted
a view of 1t. The first considerable sta
ton north of Dennison on the Katy road
is Durant. You take a team at Durant
and go twelve miles to the northwest and
presently come into view Of white city,
glistening ahead of you, in the sunlight,
high on hin top, and after long asso-
citation with the squat dwellings of the
native, the city which you are approach
ing reaches UP into majesty.
AS you get nearer the great buildings
which seem to be capped by a high
tower, grow more massive, and when you
are near you find that they are indeed
capacious buildings, and the tower you
espied a massive one.
But the city is silent, dead in the sun
lights The marble steps (think Of it,
marble in this wilderness, lead you up
to wide portals, and the portals invite
you into a great walled roofess waste,
for the roofs have long since disappeared.
by fire, ] suppose. But the government
builded well and the walls stand there
intact their windows open holes in the
masonry through which the ivy and
other creeping vines invade There are
four large buildings, barracks. officers
quarters, all arranged in a square de-
sign, with the center held by a large
tower fully forty feet in diameter. and
very high, tapering slightly from the bot
tom up have an idea that this was
q water tower or a central heating plant
or both, for the surrounding buildings.
1t may also have been designed for 2
watch tower. The masonry. on the build
ing is superb and the ruins IL left to
the ordinary run Of decay win stand as
they are today for centuries. The sec
ton on which it stands has been taken
by an Indian as his allotment and he
viii was told, build him a house out of
some Of the material at once. But he
can build many houses, a whole city. in
fact out Of the salvage of the ruined
fort and in future years [ suppose he
viii run it largely as a quarry for the
benefit of the surrounding country.
The marble steps interested me .fndi-
eating to me that the builders of these |
edifiees had determined on permanency.
The steps appeared to me as tombstones
over the designs of the forgotten build /
ers"
Under the law. the indian who secured /
the allotment did not have to paw any
thing extra for his picturesque ruins.
improvements or movable property not |
being taken into account in the allot- |
ment of land.
Mr. Bridgman said that the natives in
the vicinity knew little about Fort Wash !
tia, except to have dreamy idea that /
it was abandoned about the period of the /
beginning Of the civil war, al which time /
all the troops in the west left over from |
the Mexican war We're ordered east.
He saws that Of all the buildings the I
massive tower is in the best condition in /
fact as good as new
The probabilities are that the govern /
"a or
der the republican system Of government
the personnel Of the departments changes /
SO frequently that i'm the course al. three
decades where public property has been
abandoned all memory Of tt ceases. The
indian territory and Oklahoma were IA /
vorite locations for forts in its cary his
tory. Among them were Tt Gibson. Fl
supply. TT Cobb. TT Arbuckle. TT. Rad /
minszi. Tn the case Of the latter which
was in what is now Greer county there
IS not a vestige left There are traces
Of TT Cobb. TT Supply stn remains.
sCin under government supervision
though unoccupis6 Fl Washita is the
only one whore considerable ruins re-
main. and the government when II vas
buit no douht intended IT to be the great
est post n the southwest Only two forts
remain IN oklahoma which are now oc-
cupied nv troops-Ft Reno ana Fl sin
Tnouestonably some one IS living who
saw Fort Washta in as naluv DAYS
when the old-time army officers lived
there with their charming young brides
when the culet which has dwell .hera
since che rrimevai dawn and STIR dwers
there yves b~ ken BIZ the sound 81 music