Bill and Nancy Smith Family
Travels and Holidays

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Fort Davis National Historical Site

Fort Davis was founded in the 1840s to protect westbound travels after the Mexican War and during the gold rush, the southern route. The fort and the county surrounding it were named for Jefferson Davis who was then the United States Secretary of War (long before the Civil War). We only got to spend a short time there, but, would enjoy another visit. There is a lot of fine restoration.

Nancy took this shot as we were approaching the site. You see the parade grounds and flag behind me. The cliffs "protect" the fort all along the north side of the valley. To the right are the exhibits where the barracks were originally, on the south side of the parade grounds. To the east, were a chapel, and to the southeast the area where the horses were kept.

This is taken from near the flagpole in the center of the parade grounds, in front of the Commander's house (see below). Due east is actually toward the chapel, the building to the far right in the photo above. This is late in the afternoon, and, some weather seems to be arriving from the south. It really got very chilly as we were walking the grounds.

This was taken of the north side of the parade grounds from about the same position as the first photo, above (note the flag pole). The Commander's house and the Lieutneant's house have been restored as they would have been in the 1880s. They even had Christmas trees, socks, and related items when we visited! They are currently restoring the hospital, located several hundred feet up the ridge, toward the cliffe, immediately behind the middle of this row of houses.We did not get to go up there to see how it was coming along ("save that for another time" - a favorite expression in our family!).

Larry and Annette in the swing on the front porch of the Commander's house. Note the Christmas wreaths! Many of the houses were made of stone quarried a few miles away. However, when we asked, we were told that some of them are made from adobe made to look like stone! We weren't able to check that out ourselves - another time!

Page created 17 Jan 2000, last updated 17 Jan 2000.
Direct questions and comments to Bill or Nancy.