Fort Phantom Hill | |
 Fort Phantom Hill entrance | |
  Fort Phantom Hill  Fort Phantom Hill | |
| Nearest city | Abilene, Texas |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°38′38″N 99°40′41″W / 32.64389°N 99.67806°W |
| Area | 20 acres (8.1 ha) |
| Built | 1851 |
| NRHP reference No. | 72001367 |
| Added to NRHP | September 14, 1972 |
Fort Phantom Hill, also called the Camp on the Clear Fork,[a] is a former United States Army installation located in Jones County, Texas. The fort was established in 1851 as part of a line of forts in Texas to protect migrants passing through the state on their way to California. The US Army abandoned the fort in 1854 and it was shortly thereafter mostly destroyed by fire. In 1858, it became a station of the Butterfield-Overland Mail route until it moved out of Texas with the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. During the war, the fort was occupied by Confederate frontier troops until the Confederacy's defeat and surrender. Following the US Army's return to Texas after the Civil War, Fort Phantom Hill was used as a subpost of the larger, newer Fort Griffin until 1875.
After its final abandonment in 1875, a town was established at Fort Phantom Hill that flourished in the 1870s and ceased to exist by 1900. Following the fort's purchase by John Guitar in 1928, there was renewed public interest in the fort that led to its opening to the public in 1972. In 1997, Fort Phantom Hill was transferred to the Fort Phantom Hill Foundation. The ruins of the fort were added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1972.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).