I threatened, some time back, to bring up this subject. I may ruffle some
feathers and cherished concepts, so hold on. Since the board has been
quiet of late, this seems to be a good time to broach the subject.

Much mythology surrounds Fort Gibson. For instance, the old saw that
Henry M. Stanley taught school in the 1845 chapel built by LTC Gustave
Loomis. HMS probably never came closer to the IT than Kansas in the
1867 Hancock War. Born in 1841, as an eighteen year old, he arrived
in this country from Wales, and under a different name. The old timers
appear to have confused two individuals and came up with the story.
Even in the late 1800's several people were trying to straigten out the
facts in several newspaper articles or letters.

Secondly, while the 2nd Cavalry (later, renamed the 4th Cavalry) passed
throught the post, while the regiment was on its way to Texas. The newly
organized regiemtn spent about three days resting its personnel and horses,
etc. Its lt colonel, R.E. Lee, from what I have seen, meanwhile, was traveling
by steamboat to his Texas destination. For years, Grant Foreman and others
stated that Lee and the future famous generals of the Civil War were stationed
at the fort. Definitely not!

As to Jefferson Davis, much ballyhoo has been written about how he courted
and eloped with his first wife, daughter of Zachary Taylor, from the fort, Again,
a mistelling of the sad, true story. He was courtmartialled for insubordination
as a Dragoon officer.

The WPA stockade, made of creosoted pine logs (telephone poles) is not a
"restoration". It is a scale model of the original, somewhat on its original
location. The purpose of reconstructing the stockade, ala Hollywood, was
to provide jobs at a time people were desperate. To that end, it served
its purpose. Historically accurate, no. Reconstruction is a total rebuild while
"restoration" (used in many descriptions of the park) is that of taking an
existing structure and repairing or remodeling it. (While I am at it, a "replica"
is a copy of an original item; while a "reproduction" is an item made by the
original maker).

The problem I have, amongst others, with the WPA project is that the
original surviving structures were ignored, except for the surviving shell
of half of the stone barracks. Even today, the stockade receives the lion's
share of preservation funding while original buildings, mostly from the 1866-
1868 rebuild program, are ignored.

The commissary is not original. In researching its use as a circa 1872-1875,
I noticed that the placement of the stones in the walls do not match the
earlier photos. Somewhere in my files is a letter from the Q.B. Boydstun
in answer to my query. Rather that stabilize the very delapidated structure
he had it torn down and rebuilt. Thus making it a reconstruction. Typical
Oklahoma solution.

For years the WPA reconstruction of the bakery had a marker stating that
it was a replica of the Civil War bakery. Not true, as an analysis of the
Fort Blunt map does not show a post bakery. The 1868 era map shows
it and the 1870 Circular No. 4 of the Surgeon General's Office mentions
the bakery as being new. The WPA bakery burned sometime before 1960.
The current structure, as described by an NPS senior ranger friend, is a
"joke". For Civil War baking endeavors, refer to Wiley Britton. Also, there
were post war efforts of missionaries to obtain compensation for the bricks
stolen to build the ovens mentioned by Britton.

I have pontificated enough, for now. The site need tlc for the original buildings
but times tough and budgets arenon-existant. I have been extensively studying
the site for over 40 years and find that there is no other comparable site in
the country.