Fort Washita is the former United States military post and National Historic Landmark located in Durant, Oklahoma on SH 199.

Established in 1842 by General (later President) Zachary Taylor to protect citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations from the Plains Indians, it was later abandoned by Federal forces at the beginning of the American Civil War.

After years in private hands the Oklahoma Historical Society bought the fort grounds in 1962 and restored the site.

In 2017, the Chickasaw Nation purchased Fort Washita from the Oklahoma Historical Society and assumed responsibility for the site and its management.

Eager to gain access to the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes in the southern United States the Federal government passed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 26, 1830.

The Cross Timbers, a thick line of nearly impassable trees and brush running from north to south, created an effective east–west barrier separating the flat, dry lands inhabited by the plains Indians to the west from the rolling prairies to the east where the Five Civilized Tribes were locating.

The Choctaws mostly settled in the eastern part of their territory since the western end was less secure against raids from the plains Indians, and they had protection from federal troops located at Fort Towson.

[6] After removal to the Indian Territory the Chickasaws were reluctant to settle in their district, composed of the west and central area of the Choctaw lands.

General Zachary Taylor, as commander of the Second Military Department in the Southwest,[9] chose the site for Fort Washita in 1842 on high ground a mile and a half east of the Washita River and 18 miles north of its junction with the Red River.

Later the Shawnee Cattle Trail used this north–south route and, just prior to the Civil War, the Butterfield Overland Stage crossed just east of Fort Washita.

[9] The Chickasaw Indian Agency was built early on as a one-story log building with four rooms in a group of trees on the edge of the prairie 600 yards west of Fort Washita near the springs.

Troops from Fort Washita were ordered to protect Texas frontier from Indian attacks in 1842 so Texans could muster against a supposed invasion from Mexico.

As a United States military post near Texas the fort served as a staging point for the war.

Shortly after the Mexican–American War the 2nd Artillery Regiment, commanded by Colonel Braxton Bragg and made famous at the Battle of Buena Vista, was assigned to the fort.

"It was customary for the emigrating parties to rendezvous at Fort Washita, where detachments would consolidate, elect their officers and make their final preparations before crossing Red River into Texas and straightening out on their long southwestern tangent to El Paso.

[27] By 1858 there was an east barracks, hospital, and surgeon's quarters all built from native stone, in addition to the wooden structures.

Cavalry comprised the bulk of the forces assigned to Fort Washita until the 1850s when it served as a United States Army Field Artillery School.

[32] Many men who served at Fort Washita would go on to become famous, including Randolph B. Marcy, George McClellan, William G. Belknap[9] and Theophilus H. Holmes.

During the Civil War Fort Washita saw no action, though it was an important supply depot for the Confederates in the Indian Territory.

[9] Fort Washita became the headquarters of Brigadier General Douglas Cooper, who assumed command after the battle of Honey Springs.

United States military graves were exhumed and reinterred at Fort Gibson near Muskogee, Oklahoma.

After the Civil War Fort Washita was never reoccupied by the United States military and the grounds fell into disuse.

[9] Charles Colbert turned the existing east barracks into a personal home and the site was used as a farm for many years.

[35] In 1927, Dr. William Brown Morrison, a history professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University (then Southeastern State Normal School) visited the ruins of the fort and reported that "while rapidly disintegrating and disappearing, these ruins are still very extensive and very interesting to those who may be inclined to study the history of Oklahoma in the days long gone by.

At the time, William "Buck" Loper and his wife, Lela, lived in the current park headquarters.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965[1][5] and in 1967 the Oklahoma State Legislature approved $10,000 for the reconstruction and restoration of the fort's grounds.