FORT SILL, Okla. -- Established by military order Aug. 1, 1869, Fort Sill was named by Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan in honor of his West Point classmate, Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill, who was killed leading the charge during the battle of Stone River, Tenn., in 1862.
What began as a small military post designed to protect the Wichita Indian Agency grew from a few wooden structures and a sea of tents into more permanent buildings of limestone. The training of new recruits sent in "preparation for the opening of the expected season of Indian troubles" saw the establishment of a training school that carries forward still today.
The real history of Fort Sill began long before any official military proclamation or permanent structure. The land holds a rich history speckled with war, disease, famine, conquest and peace. Settlement and abandonment. Praise and disgust. Some believe it's still haunted by the ghosts of its past.
In his book "Carbine and Lance," Col. Wilbur Sturtevant Nye noted, "It seems strange that Fort Sill should have such a fascination for all who have served there or who live in its environs. Yet this is so.
There is an old saying in the Army, that those who have been stationed at Fort Sill always return at least once in the succeeding years. The sons of Fort Sill are continuing to help forge the nation's destiny. The influence of the old post will endure and grow as time rolls on."
The first people who lived on the lands of Fort Sill were the Wichita Indians. These nomadic people were first observed living in distinctive grass huts on the plains of Kansas in 1541 by Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado who was pushing northward in his expeditions from Mexico. Two-hundred years later a part of the tribe was found living near present day Spanish Fort, Texas.
It wasn't until 1770 that the land of Fort Sill had its first permanent residents. The distinctive grass huts of the Wichitas, first observed by Coronado, soon dotted the open grassland on what is today Polo Field. Known for hiding stores of food and goods in pear-shaped holes along the river bed, Cache Creek was aptly named by French explorers who discovered these hidden "caches" left behind by the Wichita when they fled the land. Growing tensions and bloodshed with other tribes such as the Osage, eventually forced the Wichita people west along the northern fork of the Red River, splitting into two separate tribes as they went.
In 1843, Col. Henry Dodge struck out from Fort Gibson (northeast of present day Oklahoma City) with Gen. Henry Leavenworth on an expedition south to negotiate with the rising population of Indians in that region, in an attempt to quell any uprisings before they began. After Leavenworth took ill, Dodge continued forward with his recently established 1st Dragoon Regiment until they came upon the Comanche tribe just north of Cache Creek. Here he asked the location of the Pawnee Pict (Wichita) for he wished to trade two captives whom were taken by Osage warriors. The Comanche bid him continue south of the Wichita Mountains to the mouth of Devil's Canyon. Here Dodge found and negotiated with the Wichita tribe, leading to the first treaties with the Comanche and Wichita in 1835.
With this peace, the Wichitas were able to return to the lands surrounding the bluffs. They built their homes on the exact spot where, 35 years later, Col. Benjamin Grierson would stake out camp, and they remained there until permanently abandoning the area around 1850. The land would host no more residents until early spring, 1868.
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