Built in 1824, this Fort Gibson Historic Site served as a staging area for several military expeditions that explored the west and sought peace between the tribes of the region. It was occupied through most of the Indian Removal period, abandoned in 1857, and then reactivated during the Civil War.

The army stayed through the Reconstruction period after the War and helped combat the problem of outlaws and squatters in the Territory until 1890 when the army abandoned Fort Gibson for the last time.