DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about the Fort Duncan Infantry Barracks, out in Maverick County. Now, this old building has seen more chapters than most folks would guess just driving past it. Built about 1868 — right after the U.S.
Army came back to Fort Duncan following the Civil War — this barracks settled into its post on the Rio Grande and started collecting history the way Texas collects heat. And then, 1911. That's when things got genuinely interesting.
The first military cross-country flight — think about that for a moment, the very first one — lifted off from Fort McIntosh in Laredo and came down right here. Right here at Fort Duncan. That old infantry barracks, built for boots on the ground, found itself a footnote in aviation history.
Funny how that works. Time moved on, as it does. By 1932, the Army decided it was done with the place and abandoned the post.
Six years later, the city of Eagle Pass stepped in, purchased it, and leased the barracks out to the local council of Boy Scouts. A building that had housed soldiers was now housing merit badge ambitions. Then 1939 rolls around, and the Fort Duncan Infantry Barracks became the Fort Duncan Country Club.
A rather elegant reinvention, you might say. Except — well, except for that little interruption called World War II, when the building pulled double duty as an officers club for the Eagle Pass Army Air Force Advanced Flying School. Old soldiers' quarters, briefly soldiers' quarters again.
From frontier post to aviation landmark to Scout hall to country club to wartime officers club — all inside one set of walls built about 1868. That building has been a lot of things to a lot of people, and it's still standing there in Eagle Pass to prove it.
What the marker says
Built about 1868, soon after the U.S. Army's post-Civil War reoccupation of Fort Duncan, this building played a part in aviation history when the first military cross-country flight, from Fort McIntosh in Laredo, landed here in 1911. By 1932 the Army abandoned the post. Six years later the city of Eagle Pass purchased it and leased the barracks to the local council of Boy Scouts. In 1939 the building became the Fort Duncan Country Club and remained as such except during World War II when it was also an officers club for the Eagle Pass Army Air Force Advanced Flying School. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.