DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it like this, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1867, somebody looked out at the cottonwood trees growing in the river bottoms nearby and made a practical decision — those trees were going to become a building. Not a temporary shelter, not a rough-cut shed, but one of five original officers' quarters at this post.
They milled that cottonwood lumber and they built something meant to last. Now, the barracks and the stables? Those went up from small vertical timbers — pickets, they called them — and sure enough, time and the elements had their way with those structures.
Gone. But this quarters, built from honest cottonwood? Still standing.
In fact, it's the only one of its kind left standing in the entire United States. One building. Out of all the 19th century army posts that stretched across the western frontier, every other example of this style has fallen.
This one held on. Among the men who lived and worked out of these walls was General Ranald S. MacKenzie, who during the years 1871 to 1874 was engaged in sending Indians back to reservations.
History doesn't always sit easy, and that chapter of it carries weight. The building itself outlasted the fort around it, outlasted the conflicts, outlasted the era that created it. The City of Jacksboro eventually stepped in and restored it.
These days it's maintained by the Girl Scouts. Cottonwood trees from a nearby river bottom, shaped into something that refused to quit — sometimes a building is the last one standing simply because it earned it.
What the marker says
Built in 1867 of lumber cut from cottonwoods growing in nearby river bottoms. One of 5 original officers' quarters. Outlasted fort's barracks and stables, which were built of small vertical timbers (pickets). Style typical of 19th century army posts in the west. Only one left standing the United States. Among men quartered here was General Ranald S. MacKenzie, who sent Indians back to reservations, 1871-74. Restored by City of Jacksboro. Maintained by Girl Scouts. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1964.