Fort Wingate - History

History

• 1860 A temporary post, Fort Fauntleroy, was established at Bear Springs (Ojo del Oso), a place visited by Navajos. Later it was renamed Fort Lyon, when General Thomas T. Fauntleroy, for whom the fort was originally named, joined the Confederates.
• 1862 The post was renamed Fort Wingate after the abandonment of an army post of that name located sixty miles away in San Rafael, New Mexico. It was named for Major Benjamin Wingate, 5th U.S. Infantry, who received wounds to his legs during the Battle of Valverde.
  • September General Edward Canby ordered a new fort to be placed at the headwaters of the Gallo River. It was designed to house four companies of troops.
• 1864 Colonel Kit Carson was ordered by Canby to bring four companies of the First New Mexico Volunteers to the fort to control the Navajo.
• 1865 there were 3,089 troops in the New Mexico Military District, 135 at Fort Wingate.
• It was the staging point for Navajos being sent on the Long Walk
• 1873 - 1886 Participated in Apache Wars with troops and recruited Navajo Scouts.
• 1878 there were 137 troops at Fort Wingate.
• Was asked to settle disagreements between Navajo and citizens in New Mexico 1868-1895.
• 1891 Assisted Arizona units with angry Hopis
• 1907 Two troops of the 5th Cavalry went from Fort Wingate to the Four Corners area after some armed Navajo. This was the last armed expedition the US Government ever made against the Navajo. One Navajo was killed and the rest escaped
• 1911 A company of cavalry went from Ft. Wingate to Chaco Canyon and camped there several days to quell a possible uprising by Navajo
• 1914 Over 2,000 Mexican soldiers and their families were given refuge at the fort from the Mexican Civil War
• 1918 Fort Wingate focus turned from Navajo to World War I .
• 1940 Used to store munitions from World War II onward.
• 1950 Bureau of Indian Affairs given part of the land for Indian boarding school
• Redstone and the Pershing 1 rockets were tested among other things at Wingate
• 1993 the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC) closes the post. Environmental cleanup and land transfer to the surrounding community continues to the present day.