Fort D.A. Russell

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, in my own telling of it. Fort D.A. Russell, out there in Presidio County near Marfa, and that name Marfa is right where this story starts, because the place began as Camp Marfa, a supply post for U.S.

Army border patrol stations. The year was 1911, and the borderlands were restless. The Mexican Revolution was burning on the other side of the Rio Grande, and Camp Marfa settled into its role as a cavalry camp, horses and all, through those years of upheaval.

Then came a renaming; for Civil War general David Allen Russell, and with a new name came a new standing. In 1929, Fort D.A. Russell became a permanent Army post.

That sounds like a story with a tidy ending, doesn't it? It was not. By the end of 1933, the fort was deactivated.

Shuttered. Quiet. But quiet didn't last long in that corner of Texas, because 1935 saw it reopen, this time with artillery units rolling back in.

And then the world went and had itself another war. During World War II, Fort Russell became an Army training camp, and the things it was home to tell you something about how strange and serious those years really were: a chemical warfare battalion on one side, and German prisoners of war on the other. All of it happening out there under that wide Marfa sky.

The fort held on through all of it, and then in October 1946, it was officially closed for good. What started as a cavalry supply post in 1911 had, across thirty-five years, been a camp, a fort, a training ground, and a prison; all before the dust finally settled.

What the marker says

Originally named Camp Marfa, this installation began as a supply post for U. S. Army border patrol stations in 1911. It was a cavalry camp during the years of the Mexican Revolution. Renamed for Civil War general David Allen Russell, it became a permanent Army post in 1929. Deactivated at the end of 1933, it was reopened in 1935 with artillery units. During World War II Fort Russell became an army training camp, and was home to a chemical warfare battalion as well as German prisoners of war. The fort was officially closed in October 1946. (1989)