Fort Stockton Texas

Fort Stockton Texas was the next stop on our journey through the Lone Star State.

A sculpture of a cowboy with a mustache lying on the ground in Fort Stockton Texas

WOW! We found Burt Reynolds hangin’ out at our RV Park.

A word of warning about driving across Texas. It is enormous and it’s frequently many, many miles of nothing but desert. The occasional mountain breaks up the monotony. But this isn’t a place you want to be low on fuel. We made very sure that we had plenty of gas before leaving Sonora.

A field of white windmills along the highway to Fort Stockton Texas

Along Interstate 10 heading from Sonora to Fort Stockton we passed huge wind farms.

But there was a highlight on our drive. Lots and lots of windmills. Wind farms are such an awesome source of renewable energy. And we passed farms that had 100s of windmills producing electricity.

Fort Stockton RV Park

A colorful site plan map of our RV park in Fort Stockton Texas

The site plan for the Fort Stockton RV Park shows all of the wonderful ammenities.

A piece of old farm equipment at our RV Park in Fort Stockton Texas

Farm equipment at the RV Park

A cork board covered with business cards in our RV park in Fort Stockton Texas

In the RV park office we found this wonderful source for often needed services

Since it wasn’t a terribly long drive from Sonora, we arrived at Fort Stockton RV Park pretty early in the day. After having some lunch we drove into town to get some Fort Stockton history. We spent a great couple of hours on our self guided tour.

Historic Fort Stockton

Steve and I did our own walking tour of historic Fort Stockton

The Guard House

The Guard House at Fort Stockton

An interior room of the Fort Stockton Texas guard house with stone walls and dirt floor.

The main room of the Fort Stockton Guard House

A stone wall with chains and shackles hanging and laying on the dirt floor at Fort Stockton Texas

Chains and shackles that held prisoners at Fort Stockton

Our first stop was at the Fort Stockton Guard House which was established in 1859. History tells us that the fort was abandoned during the Civil War and reestablished in 1867.

Barracks

The stones for building the guard house were quarried locally. The lumber was hauled from Indianola by Oxcart. The Guard House consisted of one room with arm and leg irons, a dungeon for solitary confinement and quarters for the guards.

Fort Stockton barracks

When completed, Fort Stockton Texas had 35 buildings including the Guard House and the Powder Magazine. Only four of the original buildings remain – the Guard House and three of the eight Officers’ Quarters.

A soldiers tent at Fort Stockton

A soldier with a rifle standing by a tent at Fort Stockton Texas

A soldier stands guard by his tent

Buffalo Soldiers

The life of the Buffalo Soldier was a harsh one though less severe than before the Civil War. Company punishment was handled by the commanding officers each day. Officers felt that violations of camp rules should be dealt with by inflicting some form of bodily pain. Infractions were listed as absence from roll call, gambling, insubordination, drunkenness, or absence from camp without leave. The Fort Stockton Guard House was abandoned in 1886.

A Fort Stockton Texas soldier mannequin with his saddle and weapon.

A soldier with his saddle and weapon at the museum at Fort Stockton

The old fort was also active from 1867 to 1886 during the Indian Wars. It was strategically placed at Comanche Springs to protect the San Antonio to El Paso mail, freight wagons, cattle drives and immigrants. The United States Army was charred by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to stop devastating raids into Mexico by Apache, Comanche and Kiowa tribes. These people traveled the infamous Comanche War Trail,,,, which coursed south by this site.

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church

A white building that was the church at Fort Stockton Texas

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church at Fort Stockton

Three other points of interest are on these grounds. The first is Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, which is one of the oldest Protestant churches west of the Pecos River. Originally, the church was constructed as Saint Mark’s Church in Pecos in 1886. The church was moved to its present location in 1958 at the south end of the for grounds, where services are still held.

Rollins Sibley House

A light blue house with white trim and trees in front at Fort Stockton Texas

The Rollins Sibley House

The next building is the Rollins Sibley House. This one story, L plan adobe residence was build on a portion of the fort hospital foundation in 1905, was built by the Rollins family. The residence was later purchased by the Sibley family who later donated the home to the county in 1966. It is currently under the care of the pecos County Historical Commission.

Hovey School

The Honey School was established at a railroad stop named after railway executive G.B. Hovey alongside the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad, about 40 miles west of Fort Stockton Texas. By 1913, Hovey contained a Railroad depot, housing for railroad workers, livestock shipping pens, a post office, general store, gas pump, a rancher’s Headquarters home and school house for community and area ranch kids. The original school house burned in 1916. W.C. Shafter build the 2nd school house, which contained one one large room, for grades one through seven. The school officially closed in 1938. The building was moved onto the old fort grounds in 1987.