Fort Gates Frontier Payroll Cache — Coryell County

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Fort Gates Frontier Payroll Cache — Coryell County

Lost Treasure TX • Coryell County County
Description
Gatesville legend of unrecovered U.S. Army frontier payroll near Fort Gates — the 1849–1852 cantonment on the Leon River that gave the county seat its name.
Historical Notes
Fort Gates (originally Camp Gates) was established October 26, 1849, on the north bank of the Leon River above Coryell Creek, about five miles east of present Gatesville. Capt. William R. Montgomery commanded the post; Lt. George Pickett was stationed there in 1850–51. The installation had eighteen buildings including a hospital, storehouses, and quarters for up to 256 enlisted men and forty-five officers in April 1851. Fort Gates was the first of the 1849 frontier cordon to be abandoned, in March 1852, after which only fireplace rock remained at the ruins. Frontier-post folklore often imagines paymaster strongboxes and sutler specie hurriedly cached when forts closed. Lead Mountain behind the ruins was named for lead bullets found there. A Cotton Belt flag station and community called Fort Gates prospered nearby after Camp Hood was built in the 1940s.
Status / Verification legend — Legendary or approximate

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