Apache Scouts visiting Fort Wingate during the 1880s.
Fort Wingate was a military installation near Gallup, New Mexico, United States. There were two other locations in New Mexico called Fort Wingate: Seboyeta (1849–1862) and San Rafael (1862–1868).[2] The most recent Fort Wingate (1868–1993) was established at the former site of Fort Lyon, on Navajo territory, initially to control and "protect" the large Navajo tribe to its north. The fort at San Rafael was the staging point for the Navajo deportation known as the Long Walk of the Navajo. From 1870 onward the garrison near Gallup was concerned with Apaches to the south, and through 1890 hundreds of Navajo Scouts were enlisted at the fort.
Ojo del Oso (in Spanish meaning "Eye of the Bear" or "Bear Spring") was a Navajo place visited for good grazing and water.
19th century
1849: A hay camp was set up near Seboyeta, New Mexico and was called Fort Wingate.[4] It was named for Major Benjamin Wingate, 5th U.S. Infantry, who died on 1 June 1862 from wounds he received during the Battle of Valverde.[5]
1860: Fort Fauntleroy was established at Bear Springs (Ojo del Oso) as an outpost of Fort Defiance. Colonel Thomas T. Fauntleroy named the fort for himself.[4]
1861: Fort Fauntleroy was renamed Fort Lyon for Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, a Unionist, when Fauntleroy left New Mexico to join the Provisional Army of Virginia after the state seceded from the Union. Fort Lyon was closed on 10 September 1861 at the start of the Civil War.[4]
1862: Fort Wingate was moved near a large spring at San Rafael, New Mexico, also known as "Bikyaya" or "El Gallo" (the rooster).[5][4] It was designed to house four companies of troops.
1864: Edward Canby ordered Colonel Kit Carson to bring four companies of the First New Mexico Volunteers to the fort to "control" the Navajo.
1864–1866: It was the staging point for the Navajo deportation known as the Long Walk of the Navajo.
1865: The New Mexico Military District had 3,089 troops, 135 of them at Fort Wingate.
1868: Fort Wingate was moved back to the former site of Fort Lyon at Ojo del Oso.[6]
1868: Navajo people returning from Bosque Redondo were temporarily settled at the Oso Del Ojo Fort Wingate before spreading out into the newly established Navajo Reservation.
1873–1886: The fort's troops participated in Apache Wars with troops and recruited Navajo Scouts.
1878: Fort Wingate had 137 troops.
In 1895 Second Lieutenant Cornelius C. Smith, a Medal of Honor recipient, posed with his favorite horse, Blue, in front of his quarters.
1868–1895: Fort Wingate troops often settled disagreements between Navajo and "citizens" in New Mexico.
1891: Fort Wingate troops assisted Arizona units against angry Hopis.
20th century
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 made against the Navajo. One Navajo was killed and the rest escaped.[citation needed]
1911: A Ft. Wingate company of cavalry went to Chaco Canyon and camped there several days to quell a possible uprising by Navajo.
1914: During the Mexican Civil War over 2,000 Mexican soldiers and their families took refuge at the fort.
1918: Fort Wingate focus turned from Navajo to World War I.
1940: Fort Wingate became an ammunition depot from World War II until 1993.
As of 2016, FWDA spread across 21,131 acres, occupied 15,280 acres of land and a BRAC acreage of 14,666.[8]: 6
Environmental cleanup and land transfer[when?] to the surrounding community continues to the present, through at least 2022. 5,854 acres have already been transferred to the Department of Interior.[8]: 6 Explosives, perchlorates and nitrates are the primary contaminant in the northern groundwater plumes which have not migrated off-post, all other sites consist of relatively minor soil or building contamination without groundwater issues but with explosives, SVOCs, and metals like lead.[8]: 11
Geography
Fort Wingate is in western McKinley County, with the inhabited portion located 15 miles (24 km) by road east-southeast of Gallup, the county seat. New Mexico State Road 400 runs through the community, leading north 3 miles (5 km) to Interstate 40 and south 8 miles (13 km) to McGaffey.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Fort Wingate census-designated place has an area of 2.02 square miles (5.2 km2), all land.[9] The area drains north toward the South Fork of the Puerco River, part of the Little Colorado River watershed.
As of 1956[update] the Wingate Elementary dormitory is a former military barracks that also houses students at Wingate High.[11] In 1968 the girls' dormitory had 125 girls; the Associated Press stated that the dormitory lacked decoration and personal effects and was reflective of a campaign to de-personalize Native American students. At the time the school strongly discouraged students from speaking Navajo and wanted them to only speak English.[12] Circa 1977 it opened a 125-student $90,000 building which used a solar heating system.[13]
