Where Texas history is kept right where it happened.
About this site
Fort Lancaster is a state historic site in Texas, Texas. It is one of 24 state historic sites documented in Texas in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 24 historic sites cataloged across the county.
The site sits at 30.6668, -101.6987. The nearest cataloged historic site is Fort McKavett (state historic site), about 95 miles away. Others within a short drive include Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site, Landmark Inn, and Landmark Inn.
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #P093. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Photo: Sketch by a government draftsman (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
History
Fort Lancaster, now the Fort Lancaster State Historic Site near Sheffield in Crockett County, Texas, was a U.S. Army installation established in 1855 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road to protect migrants traveling west toward California. The U.S. Army occupied it until Texas seceded in March 1861, after which Confederate forces held it from November 1861 until April 1862, when it was abandoned and burned. In 1857 the fort was a stop for the U.S. Army's experimental Camel Corps caravan led by Edward Fitzgerald Beale. The site preserves the ruins of 29 buildings and a visitor center; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1971, and operational control passed from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission in 2008.
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