Cantonment Reno started as a temporary base of operations for General George Crooks' 1876 Big Horn Expedition,.

[3] Crook's Expedition was part of the intensive campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne in late 1876, following Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The army surprised and scattered the Cheyennes driving men, women and children out of their village into subzero temperatures and snow on the open prairie.

Cantonment Reno provided logistic support for the attack,[5] and rudimentary care for the army wounded from the battle.

On August 30, 1877, the War Department officially renamed Cantonment Reno as Fort McKinney.

[3] After considerable study a decision was made to relocate the post to the new Fort McKinney, 45 miles northwest, to a site on the Clear Fork of the Powder River.

The new site of Fort McKinney was on benchlands just north of the Clear Fork, about two miles west of present-day Buffalo, Wyoming.

Today no structures remain of the cantonment, but shallow depressions in the ground are evidence of their former existence.

Scattered widely throughout the site are fragments of metal, wood and glass, reminders of what once could be found at the depot.