Fort Lancaster

Fort Lancaster, one in a series of forts erected along the western Texas frontier, is located in the Pecos River Valley, along Live Oak Creek, in Crockett County, Texas, United States. The fort was established by Captain Stephen Decatur Carpenter on August 20, 1855, to guard the military supplies, commercial shipments, and immigrants moving along the San Antonio-El Paso Road. The 82-acre site, now operated by the Texas Historical Commission as Fort Lancaster State Historic Site, contains the ruins of twenty-nine buildings that made up the fort and a visitor center with a museum about the heritage of the fort.

On 7 Aug. 1855, Capt. Stephen Carpenter, West Point Class 1840, left Fort Duncan with 1st Infantry Co. H and K, and established Camp Lancaster on Live Oak Creek on 20 Aug. The camp was probably named after Capt. Carpenter's classmate, Job Roberts Hamilton Lancaster. When it was initially constructed in August, 1855 as Camp Lancaster, the buildings were tents, followed by simple shelters covered with canvas known as jacales. A short time later pre-fabricated parts of experimental modular buildings, U.S. Army “Turnley Portable Cottages”, were hauled by wagon from the railhead in San Antonio and erected at the site.

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