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All the United States Oklahoma Lawton Fort Sill

Fort Sill

Final resting place of Geronimo, Quanah Parker, and the first atomic gun ever fired.

Lawton, Oklahoma

Added By
Allison Meier
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Grave of Geronimo   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Grave of Geronimo   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Medicine Bluffs   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Buffalo soldier in the Fort Sill Museum   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Fort Sill Apache Spirit Dance, 1969   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Fort Sill Museum   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Guard house   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Fort Sill Indian Police badge   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Prison cells in the guard house   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Geronimo’s cell in the guard house   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Atomic Annie   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Apache POW Cemetery   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Unknown burial in the Fort Sill Post Cemetery   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Fort Sill Gate   hobova / Atlas Obscura User
Geronimo’s Grave   Matthew H Ward / Atlas Obscura User
Chief Loco   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
Geronimo’s Grave   Matthew H Ward / Atlas Obscura User
With some family   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
Respect 🫡 absolutely   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
Respect 🫡   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
The missionary, grave is behind the family   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
These boulders are very rare but local to Medicine Park, which is nearby.   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
Eagle- read Geronimo autobiography sometime to understand the eagle 🦅   IronQueen / Atlas Obscura User
  Scott Terrell / Atlas Obscura User
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Geronimo Grave   hobova / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Fort Sill is the last operating military outpost set up in the 19th century Indian Wars, but it's much more than just an army base. It's also the final resting place of some of the most famous American Indians of the West, and one of the worst weapons ever made.

Fort Sill started in 1869 when Major General Philip H. Sheridan was on a mission to curtail tribe attacks on the Texas and Kansas border settlements. From then on, the army based there has had a complicated relationship with the American Indians. This is reflected in the post cemeteries, where chiefs like Quanah Parker and Kicking Bird are honored in the main post cemetery, and others like the Apache POWs, including the famed Geronimo, are in their own quiet space of the fort where they lived out their final days.

Geronimo was brought to Fort Sill with the other Apache POWs in 1894 and, aside from travels with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show, the warrior remained a prisoner of war until his death in 1909 from pneumonia. You can find his grave in the Apache cemetery under a pyramid of stones topped by an eagle, although the story that his skull was stolen by the Yale Skull & Bones Society has yet to be proven or disproven. 

Out near the edge of the fort are the Medicine Bluffs, a longtime religious and ceremonial site for the local tribes, and it's said that healers once lived atop the stunning cliffs. You can still find sage growing at the base that is still gathered by tribal members, even though their historic healing place is encompassed by the army base. 

Currently, the post is home to a field artillery school, so while looking at the information in the museum or walking the old quadrangle, mainly built by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Calvary Regiment that was based here, you may hear the boom of guns in the background. The most terrifying gun on base, though, has not been fired for years. Atomic Annie, a 280mm gun, was the first atomic gun in the world to be fired. The nuclear cannon was created in the 1950s during the Cold War, and was tested out in Nevada. Luckily, the gun that could fire a nuclear detonation at a site 7 miles away was never actually used in combat.

Related Tags

Atom Bombs Nuclear Forts Catacombs And Crypts Intriguing Environs Lost Tribes Ecosystems

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Added By

Allison

Edited By

hobova, Matthew H Ward, SemiruralYeti, Scott Terrell...

  • hobova
  • Matthew H Ward
  • SemiruralYeti
  • Scott Terrell
  • drwolff
  • IronQueen

Published

June 26, 2013

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Sources
  • http://oklahomageology.pbworks.com/w/page/12535664/Medicine%20Bluff%20Historic%20Site%20on%20Fort%20Sill
  • http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.2832
  • http://voices.yahoo.com/geronimos-grave-fort-sill-oklahoma-620940.html
Fort Sill
Packard St
Lawton, Oklahoma, 73503
United States
34.657765, -98.41989
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