Fort Reno began as a temporary camp in July 1874 near the Darlington Agency, which needed protection from an Indian uprising that eventually led to the Red River War.

[3] Soldiers from Fort Reno also attempted to control Boomer and Sooner activity during the rush to open the Unassigned Lands for settlement.

[2] The laboratory's mission is to develop and deliver improved technologies, management strategies, and strategic and tactical planning tools which help evaluate and manage economic and environmental risks, opportunities, and tradeoffs, for integrated crop, forage, and livestock systems under variable climate, energy and market conditions.

[1] An executive order in 1883 officially identified the area assigned to Fort Reno as 9,493 acres (38.42 km2) in the Cheyenne and Arapaho reserve, "setting apart for military purposes exclusively of the tract of land herein described.

Several attempts have been made by Democratic politicians to aid the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes, most notably Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, Jr. of American Samoa in 1997[11] and by Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in 2000.