On June 17, 1867, a battalion of the 10th U.S. Infantry began building a fort to protect westward travelers. The Homestead Act, combined with the end of the Civil War, had led to increased westward migration. Soldiers used oak logs to construct buildings, all arranged within a fortification made of sod. An area of ten square miles with the fort at its center was designated as the Fort Ransom Military Reservation. The fort was named after Major General Thomas E.G. Ransom of the U.S. Volunteers.
The buildings included barracks, storehouses, a granary, a guardhouse, a hospital, offices, stables, and a magazine to store ammunition. Indian scouts lived outside the fort’s breastworks. Life at the fort was isolated and difficult. Drinking and cooking water had to be hauled from a spring, and in summer, soldiers bathed in the river. But in winter, when a hole had to be chopped through the ice, cleanliness took a backseat. The soldiers maintained a vegetable garden and grew hay for livestock.
A regular mail run linked Fort Ransom with Fort Abercrombie. Mail traveled through Abercrombie to St. Paul, but storms in winter and flooding in spring often halted the route. Under the best conditions, a one-way trip from Fort Ransom to St. Paul took eight days. Despite the isolation, a town began to grow near the fort. In 1878, J.D. Currie opened a general store, marking the start of Fort Ransom as a civilian settlement.
On this date in 1872, the soldiers at Fort Ransom were preparing to leave the fort for the last time the next day. Westward travel was shifting from wagon trains to the railroad. The Army decided it was more important to protect the crews of the Northern Pacific Railroad at the James River than to guard the overland route at Fort Ransom. Soldiers dismantled the buildings and moved the materials to the site of the new Fort Seward in Jamestown. Fort Ransom was officially abandoned on May 27.
Today, little remains of what was once an important frontier post. Visitors will find a historical marker, remnants of buildings, a fortification ditch and a flagpole that honors the memory of Fort Ransom.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Carole Butcher
Sources:
- State Historical Society of North Dakota. “Fort Ransom State Historic Site.” https://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/ransom/index.html Accessed 4/24/2014.
