Fort Lancaster Fort Lancaster , one in a series of forts erected along the western Texas frontier , is located in the Pecos River Valley in Crockett County , Texas , United States . The fort was established by Captain Stephen Decatur Carpenter on August 20 , 1855 , to guard the military supplies , commercial shipments , and immigrants moving along the San Antonio - El Paso Road . The 82 acre site , now operated by the Texas Historical Commission as Fort Lancaster State Historic Site , contains the ruins of twenty - nine buildings that made up the fort and a visitor center with a museum about the heritage of the fort . When it was initially constructed in August , 1855 as Camp Lancaster , the buildings were simple shelters covered with canvas . A short time later pre - fabricated parts of experimental modular buildings , U . S . Army “ Turnley Portable Cottages ” , were hauled by wagon from the railhead in San Antonio and erected at the site . Camp Lancaster became Fort Lancaster on August 21 , 1856 . By 1858 it housed approximately 150 men , a commanding officer , and one commissioned officer for each of the companies H and K of the First United States Infantry . Company H left the fort on April 12 , 1859 to take post at Fort Stockton , to the northwest . By 1860 most of the buildings were made of stone or adobe . In June 1860 , the U . S . Camel Corps stopped at the fort , then continued westward . Fort Lancaster was abandoned by the U . S . Army in March 1861 , after Texas seceded from the Union . U . S . troops and their dependants ( a few families , including enlisted men ’ s wives serving as laundresses ) and the contract sutler were allowed by Texas State Troops to leave the fort with their arms , equipment , horses , draft animals , wagons , and personal belongings ; they went to San Antonio , boarded trains for the Texas coast , and sailed away on U . S . ships . After declaration of war the fort was garrison ed by Company F , Second Regiment of the Texas Mounted Rifles , recently taken into the Confederate States Army , from December 1861 through April 1862 . When the Civil War ended the fort was abandoned by Texas troops and the buildings began to deteriorate from vandalism and the harsh climate . When the Civil War ended the U . S . Army occupied Texas ; Texas was under U . S . Army administration until 1875 . During the occupation several other frontier forts were established in Texas . Various companies of the 9th Cavalry rotated through Fort Lancaster and gradually the outpost was rebuilt . These soldiers escorted stagecoach es westward and fought skirmishes with Apaches . In December 1867 the U . S . 9th Cavalry ’ s Company K , a unit of African American cavalrymen with white commissioned officers , was stationed at the fort . These were seasoned “ horse soldiers ” including Civil War veteran non - commissioned officers . Largely because white cavalry units objected to designating them as “ U . S . Cavalry ” , they were furnished with “ saddle mules " and horses inferior to those of other U . S . cavalry units ; sometimes they were issued outdated arms and other such second - rate equipment . Despite their equally dangerous and arduous duties they were officially called “ mounted infantry . ” A motto ascribed to them was " forty miles a day on beans and hay . " On December 26 , 1867 , a large band of Kickapoo and Comanchero raiders attacked the fort to steal horses . The company repelled the attack but lost 38 horses and mules . Some of the raiders returned two days later ; they were unsuccessful in taking the remaining animals . The fort was not challenged by the renegades again . In 1871 the fort ' s troops were active in dealing with the Kiowa - Comanche uprising . After the trouble subsided the fort was completely abandoned in 1873 or 1874 . During the following decades much of the building material from the fort was used for buildings in the vicinity , particularly in Sheffield , about seven miles ( 8 . 4 km ) west . Archeology . Within 40 years after being built the wooden - frame superstructures of some buildings at the fort burned . " Only a few partially extant walls , a chimney , and numerous wall foundations remained in 1912 . " This was the general condition of the site when the first scientific archeological investigations were conducted in 1966 . Archeological excavations were again conducted in 1971 when the site was mapped and test excavations were done . Archeological investigations in 1974 revealed that officers ' quarters buildings had wood - plank floors , thresholds , and door jambs fitted with iron pintels ; the assumption is that doors were also of wood . These carbonized remains were left " in situ " after being exposed during archeological investigations , photographed , and recorded by measured drawings using grid systems tied to " modern " architectural features of the park facilities . The excavation units were stabilized by careful backfilling with soil removed from those units to protect the remains for anticipated future public display . Subsequent archeology in 1975 and 1976 revealed that wooden superstructure and flooring of site ' s commanding officer ' s residence and the sutler ' s store had likewise been destroyed by fire . Architectural details of buildings investigated by archeological excavation 1974 - 1976 indicate that before the buildings burned they were all similar in design and construction , as would be expected of military engineering . Preservation . Fort Lancaster was deeded to Crockett County in 1968 by private owners for its preservation and public use . Title to the land subsequently was transferred to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ( TPWD ) on April 16 , 1968 . TPWD architects attempted the first interpretative restoration at the site with modern cement mortar to stabilize the remaining stone walls and cement - fortified adobes to simulate the original plain - mud adobes of the enlisted men ’ s mess - hall . Associated with the 1974 - 1976 archeological investigations and as a preservation measure the archeologists in 1976 made adobes from untempered mud dug on site with hand tools . These adobes , sized to duplicate the original adobe bricks , were laid atop remaining original adobe walls at some of the officer ’ s quarters on the north side of the parade ground . Remains of these adobes still formed a protective preservative layer as late as April , 2010 . A budget shortfall prompted the State to yield management of the site to Texas Rural Communities , Incorporated , in 1993 . On January 1 , 2008 , operational control of the site was transferred from TPWD to the Texas Historical Commission , which now manages preservation and public visitation of the site .