News – Sheridan Media
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The Sheridan Community Land Trust held its second August Explore History at Fort Mackenzie on August 21. Although it was a hot day, the tour attracted several people who wanted to learn more about the fort.
First established as a military outpost and later transformed into a veteran’s hospital, Fort Mackenzie has served the Sheridan community for more than 125 years.
Connie Trentacosti, patient advocate at the Veteran’s Administration, and her service dog, Bridger, lead the tour. She started her talk with a history of the fort
The towns people still had to convince the government that Sheridan needed a fort.
So, in 1898, President McKinley set aside land for a military reservation, 6,208 acres of land for the construction of a fort for Sheridan. In 1901, congress set aside $100k for construction of the fort. The Fort was named for Ranald S. Mackenzie (1840-1889), a veteran of the Civil War and the Indian Wars of the West. He is best known for his involvement in the Dull Knife Battle near Barnum.
At first the fort was just wooden structures, but then they built the brick buildings, which are still in use today
Trentacosti told one of the lesser-known stories about the fort. “Not many people know about this,” she said. “Around the time the fort was built, the cavalry was looking for a place to for their horses, where there was good water, good grazing, and a place for them to rest.”
The horses were put on boats at Miles City and shipped down the Missouri River, then they were loaded on boats to cross the ocean, and many of the horses died on the trip.
She also mentioned the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ who were stationed at Fort Mackenzie. In 1905, Trentacosti said,
She added that the fort was almost closed down at one time.
She talked about the evolution of the fort into a first-class Veteran’s Administration Hospital. The tour took the group to many of the buildings, including one that used to be a jail, as well as the bowling alley,
The tour also went to the baseball field. Baseball was a popular past time in the early 1900s in Sheridan, and Fort Mackenzie and Sheridan each had a baseball team that competed against each other.
Posted on the wall of another building were several old photos of the fort. One interesting bit of information posted was a list of duties and rules for nurses at the hospital.
Another building that the group saw was what used to be the stables, and the names of the horses were still on the beams above each stable where the horses were kept.
In 1972, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and most of the buildings are original. New construction is kept close to the architecture of the old buildings. It is now a Veteran’s Hospital that offers a wide range of medical and mental health services to veterans.
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Last modified: August 21, 2024