Fort Wingate

Fort Wingate
McKinley County, near Gallup, New Mexico
Fort Wingate in the 1870s
Coordinates35°06′45″N 107°52′58″W / 35.112466°N 107.882652°W / 35.112466; -107.882652
Site information
Controlled by New Mexico
Conditionammunition depot, storage facility
Site history
Built1862
Built by United States
In use1862 - 1993
Battles/warsApache Wars
Navajo Wars
Garrison information
Past
commanders
Kit Carson
William Redwood Price
GarrisonNavajo Scouts
Apache Scouts
4th Cavalry
8th Cavalry
9th Cavalry and 13th Infantry
15th Infantry
OccupantsUnited States Army
Fort Wingate Historic District
Fort Wingate is located in New Mexico
Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate is located in the United States
Fort Wingate
LocationNM 400, Fort Wingate, New Mexico
Area27 acres (11 ha)
Built1868 (1868)
NRHP reference No.78003076[1]
NMSRCP No.403
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 26, 1978
Designated NMSRCPAugust 22, 1975
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, New Mexico (1849–1862) and San Rafael, New Mexico (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.

Fort Wingate supplied 100 tons of Composition B high explosives to the Manhattan Project for use in the first Trinity test and became an ammunition depot "Fort Wingate Depot Activity" from World War II until it was closed by the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Environmental cleanup of UXO, perchlorate, and lead as well as land transfer continue to the present day.

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ San Rafael is at 35°06′45″N 107°52′58″W / 35.112466°N 107.882652°W / 35.112466; -107.882652.