Fort McCullough Historical Marker
After the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in March 1862, Brigadier General Albert Pike believed that his headquarters at Fort Davis were vulnerable to attack. Gathering his scattered forces, he retreated to a bluff on the South bank of the Blue River about three miles Southwest of Kenefic, Oklahoma.
He named the post for General Benjamin McCulloch, who died at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, during the Civil War. Though strategically located along routes leading to Forts Gibson and Washita in Indian Territory, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and supply towns in North Texas, no permanent buildings were erected. Consisting of earthworks, the post was garrisoned by Texas and Arkansas troops. When Pike resigned in July 1862, the post’s importance declined, but it served as a refugee haven during the war and, briefly, in 1865, as General Stand Watie’s seat of command.
The site listed on the National Register of Historic Places is on private property, and no remains of its former activity remain.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2026.
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