Fort McKavett, Military fort in Menard County, Texas.

Fort McKavett is a former US Army post on a high bluff above the San Saba River in Menard County, Texas. Its surviving 19th-century buildings, including barracks, officers' quarters, a hospital, and a schoolhouse, were built largely of locally quarried limestone. A tall flagpole with guy wires stands in a grassy field in front of low white buildings with dark roofs, flanked by large green trees.

This fort was established in 1852 to protect West Texas settlers and provide shelter for travelers heading to California during the gold rush era. It became an important stopping point along the frontier trail.

The fort's name honors Captain Henry McKavett of the 8th Infantry, killed at the Battle of Monterrey in 1846; the post was first called Camp San Saba. After the Army left in 1883, settlers moved into the buildings and ran homes and businesses inside them, and a town grew on the grounds until the late 1920s.

The site sits on a bluff on the south bank of the San Saba River, about 50 miles west of Fort Mason, reached by road from Menard. Buildings stand on uneven ground with stone steps and thresholds, so watch your footing. Some structures are unfurnished shells; others hold exhibits. Allow time to walk between the barracks, hospital and officers' quarters.

The fort's stone buildings were made from limestone quarried at three sites near the post, and the first year's structures had no floors, doors or glass windows; those materials came from Fredericksburg, 100 miles away. The army leased the 640-acre grounds from M. A. Dooley in 1855 for $600 a year.