Ft Gibson, Ok
Ft Gibson, Ok is a lovely little town located about 75 miles northwest of Ft Smith, AR and thirty miles north of me in Webbers Falls, Ok, near the end of the Cherokees’ Trail of Tears at Tahlequah. I invited my sister in law to go on a trip to see the dam in Ft Gibson. We took the scenic route, OK 10 North from Gore, Ok to US 62 E/OK 10 to OK 80 North. Ft Gibson isn’t just a name only fort, it’s a real one. The fort was established in 1824 to protect the southwestern border of the Louisiana Purchase. After 1830 and the Indian Removal Act it’s primary mission was to keep the peace between the different tribes forced to settle in the area.
At the height of the Indian removal in the 1830s, the garrison at Ft Gibson was the largest in the nation. It boasted some very notable soldiers, Stephen W Kearny, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Nathan Boone, son of Daniel and Sam Houston, who were either stationed at the fort or visited or like Sam Houston owned a trading post near the fort.
Dignitaries and the well to do traveled up the Arkansas River to Grand River docking in Ft Gibson to vacation.
On your visit, you can elect to pay a small fee and the caretakers will open all of the doors and escort you around the fort. It was a little chilly there the day we chose to go and my sister in law can’t stand or walk for long periods, so we decided to just take some pics of the fort. On our way back we stopped off at a wonderful shop in town called Granny’s Porch, where we met Larry, the husband of the shop owner. He and his wife are retired school teachers and he kindly gave us a history lesson on the fort.
