Fort Supply Historic Site

06/05/2026

Stray Shots
The Army post closed in 1894. By the turn of the century, the empty buildings were often used by settlers to the area during the time known as the "Squatter Period" from 1895 to 1908. Often people from Woodward would take outings/picnics to the fort. The photograph was taken about 1906 in front of the Officers' Quarters on Officers' Row. The yard fence that once stood in front of the quarters was probably robbed for firewood. The planks in the foreground were from the boardwalk that ran the length of the row. There were two photographers present as one man with a camera was photographed by another person. The photo was signed by J.R. Boyle, a Woodward resident.

05/24/2026

Stray Shots
Late 1880s view of north end of Officers' Row quarters at Fort Supply. Commanding Officer's Quarters in dark body and lighter trim paint scheme.
Across the company street is a picket log building that at one time
served as Post Headquarters.

05/17/2026

Stray Shots
The post's hospital compound in the late 1880s. The main 12 bed hospital is flanked by the morgue, latrine, Hospital Steward's Quarters, and surrounded by a fence to keep roaming animals out.
Note the lack of trees and brush in the background and just a sliver of the Beaver River near the edge of the image.

05/15/2026

Stray Shots
The 12 bed, hospital built at Camp Supply in the 1870s as it appeared in the late 1880s. The cook and two hospital staff posed on the porch. Windows and ventilators on the roof provided much needed air movement. Fresh air and sunlight were deemed essential to patient recovery.

05/04/2026

Stray Shots
The first hospital at Camp Supply consisted of large hospital tents. Then a log structure was constructed to replace the tents.
On October 3, 1872, Headquarters Department of Missouri, approved the expenditure of $6,875 to construct a frame building for a hospital. It was a standard, Army 12 bed configuration with outbuildings such as a morgue (Dead House), Hospital Steward's quarters, and latrine. The building was finished in 1873 and was probably the first wood frame structure on post.
However, the Post Medical Officer planned to have the whole post moved to higher ground to the south of the fort due to drainage concerns. So, he naturally, faced the front of the building to the south away from the other post buildings. Unfortunately, the powers that be never moved the post buildings.
The hospital was kept in good condition with remodeling and repairs until the fort closed in 1894. The building was destroyed by fire during the early years of the mental hospital occupation.
The hospital staff consisted of the post medical officer and a hospital steward (permanent NCO staff). Other staff was extra duty soldiers assigned to aid the steward in taking care of patients and act as a cook. In later years, a civilian female matron was hired to assist staff.
In later years, the hospital's kitchen and wash/bathroom were serviced by the post's water and sewer lines. The compound of buildings was surrounded by a picket fence to keep livestock off the grounds.

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04/25/2026

Stray Shots
Fires & Fire apparatus.
Destructive fires were common on a frontier military post including Supply. Often caused by accidental ignition by candles, lanterns, cook fires, heating stoves, or stove pipes. The post's buildings were nearly all constructed of logs. Wildfires were common during the dry season. One report stated that a large fire could be seen burning to the southwest have originated in the Texas Panhandle for two nights before it burned out on the banks of Wolf Creek.

A letter dated July 2, 1877, noted that a fire on Officers' Row destroyed three log buildings containing five sets of quarters. The buildings were so close together and with highly flammable materials that the efforts of the post's troops could not save them. Two officers lost all of their personal their personal property. These structures were replaced by the present Commanding Officer's Quarters in1878.

By the 1890s, the post had a water system with fire hydrants around the Parade Ground. Each company barracks was supplied with firefighting apparatus. These consisted of water buckets, axes, fire ladders, & fire poles with hooks. Buckets were painted red with "Fire" imprinted on them so that they could not be used for other purposes.

There is evidence that there were several, two-wheel fire carts with hose reels. These were kept on the porches of certain barracks.

During the early days of the State Mental Hospital the patients were housed on the wood barracks and many of these burned down. The State decided to build dormitory wards of brick because they were supposedly fire-proof.

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04/23/2026

Stray Shots

Barracks at Camp/Fort Supply. Barracks were the living quarters for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers who were stationed at the post. The first quarters were log huts/dugouts/tents. In 1869, the first barracks were constructed in a U shape of "Cotton wood logs set upright with dirt roofs and floors." They were "...habitable in dry weather. The dirt roofs proved a failure in rain." There were five sets of company quarters, 90 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 9 feet high with a kitchen to each set of 15 feet by 15 feet. Bunks were built of poles and boards, with bed sacks filled with hay or straw and one blanket. They were heated by stoves but not well lighted. The cottonwood logs deteriorated rapidly, and some were replaced each year.
The Outline Description of Posts, 1876 state that there was a mess room, kitchen, washroom in one wing and the First Sergeant's room and storeroom in the other. The roofs were wood shingle with ventilators on the ridge, wood floor, and 16 to 18 windows. In the rear of each set of company quarters is a stockade building 75' by 18', containing quarters for three married soldiers.
In 1884 through 1886, the barracks were replaced with frame construction, wood walls, ceilings, shingle roof, with a raised front porch. They were U shaped, two wings. Interiors were painted white with dark blue trim. The cavalry barracks were situated on the south line and the infantry on the north line of the parade ground.
In 1893, a barracks that had been occupied by the 13th Infantry band was repurposed as a gymnasium for the soldiers.
The later buildings lasted into the early years of the mental hospital's occupation of the old fort grounds.

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04/12/2026

Frontier forts were garrisoned by both infantry and cavalry soldiers. They had separate barracks situated in line on two sides of the Parade Ground with infantry on the north and cavalry on the south. The cavalry also had stables for their horses near their barracks. There were several stages of stables constructed over the life of Fort Supply. The first were crude structures built of vertical logs in the picket style with canvas roofs. Later these were replaced
by structures that contained a stall for each mount. At the ends were saddle rooms and a room for the stable guard, men who spent a 24-hour period guarding the stables. There was one or more wells for horse water. By 1889, the picket logs were replaced by a frame structure with five rooms and stalls for 72 horses located at the southeast corner of the post.

04/06/2026

Stray Shots or the Firing Range and Target Practice.

Fort Supply had several different locations for its fi****ms practice over the years. The Army did not provide its troops with many opportunities for practice. It is rumored that marksmanship was relatively lax until after 1876 and the debacle at the Little Bighorn battle.

Documents from the National Archives provide some information on the fort's firing range in July 1894. "There are five separate mid ranges, and one long range and each troop and company has separate ranges for skirmishing, but all use the same range for volley firing." "Target pits, separate, good." "Ditches dug to run off water when it rains." There were no target butts as the Beaver River was just in the rear and bullets hit on the opposite bank. There was good ground and proper targets for mounted revolver practice. Practice was usually in the summer months. "High winds generally prevail, the firing is generally done in the early morning. No citizens living near. Danger flags are always up before firing."

Just in case there were a few stray shots.

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03/27/2026

Stray Shots
There was a telegraph line between Fort Supply and Fort Reno. It required yearly maintenance that was done in September. In September 1888, a noncommissioned officer and five privates were detailed to replace old wooden line poles over twenty days. One hundred fifty iron poles were dropped off along the line over the Fort Supply section at Persimmon Creek to Woodward. Eighty more iron poles were for the route from Supply to Woodward.

Wood poles were being replaced by iron because the wooden ones deteriorated, were blown over, burned by prairie fires, or were cut down by civilians or Indians for various purposes.