{"id":857,"date":"2015-06-29T00:29:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T00:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2015-06-29T00:29:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T00:29:54","slug":"focus-on-the-backroads-fort-griffin-state-historical-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS ON THE BACKROADS: FORT GRIFFIN STATE HISTORICAL SITE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Located in the rolling hills \u00a0between the West Fork of the Trinity River and Clear Fork of the Brazos River Fort Griffin<\/strong> was considered on of the wildest places in the Old West. \u00a0On July 29, 1867 Fort Griffin was established by four companies of the Sixth Cavalry of the US Army to give settlers protection from Comanche and Kiowa raids. \u00a0The fort was first named Camp Wisdom and was later renamed Fort Griffin after Charles Griffin. \u00a0Griffin had been a Civil War Union General and was the military governor during the early years of Reconstuction.<\/p>\n

When completed the fort would house up to six companies of soldiers. \u00a0Included were administration building, a hospital, officers’ quarters, numerous barracks, a guard house, a bakery, a powder magazine, five storehouses, four stables, a laundry, and a workshop. \u00a0Soon after the fort was complete a new settlement started at the bottom of the hill. \u00a0This settlement was first call The Bottom, The Flat<\/em> or Hidetown<\/em> and eventually would take the name of the fort. \u00a0Along with honest folks that \u00a0engaged in ranching, farming, buffalo hunting and other businesses many well know outlaws, gunfighters and hooligans arrived. \u00a0The town gained a reputation for lawlessness. \u00a0Some of these visitors included Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Big Nose Kate (famous lady gambler), Pat Garrett, Bat and Jim Masterson, and gunfighter John Wesley Hardin. \u00a0 Soon the town was nicknamed “Babylon on the Brazos.<\/p>\n

As more people arrive the indian attacks increased in the area. \u00a0In 1874 the Army defeated the Kiowas and Comanches at Pal Duro Canyon. \u00a0After the Red River War the area was flooded with more settlers and became a ranching and farming center. \u00a0On May 31, 1879 Capt JB Irvine from Company A, 22nd Infantry lowered the flag for the last time and relocated with the troops to Fort Clark.<\/p>\n

On Januarey 1, 2008, Fort Griffin<\/strong> was transferred to the Texas Historical Commission. \u00a0Today there are the ruins that remain from the fort. \u00a0The visitors center is a must with exhibits and information about this historical site. \u00a0There are also campsites, hiking trails, and it is the home of the official Texas Longhorn Herd.<\/p>\n

The history of Fort Griffin<\/strong> is commemorated each year in the Fort Griffin Fandangle<\/strong>, and outdoor musical. \u00a0The Fandangle, which has been in production is 1938 is staged in an acre-sized amphitheater with a cast of over 400 locals. \u00a0The six performances, that occur on the last two weekends in June, are attended by more than 10,000 people each year. \u00a0(I hate to say this BUT I have never attended – I will next year!)<\/p>\n

Please visit the Fort Griffin<\/strong> website at www.visitfortgriffin.com.<\/p>\n

“Mom, this is a cool place”………..little boy at the Fort Griffin Visitors Center<\/em><\/p>\n

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Located in the rolling hills \u00a0between the West Fork of the Trinity River and Clear Fork of the Brazos River Fort Griffin was considered on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15,12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backroads","category-memorials","category-texas-events","category-texas-historical-site"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Fort-Griffin-housting-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}