The Fort Sill Museum has a new exhibit, and it lives inside one of the oldest buildings on post. The Wagon Gallery opened inside a limestone commissary storehouse built by Black soldiers in the 1870s, and it puts sixteen wagons and coaches on public display for the first time in a dedicated space.
The lineup spans decades of frontier travel. Visitors will find an 1831 Conestoga, an ambulance, stagecoaches, a phaeton, a tally-ho wagon, an ice wagon, farm wagons, and an Albany cutter sled. Before railroads reached this part of Oklahoma in 1901, wagons like these carried nearly everything Fort Sill and early Lawton needed, from supplies and mail to people making the trip west.
Collections manager Emily May said the wagons had long been part of the museum’s collection, and staff had been waiting for the right opportunity to show them. That opportunity came with new flooring, roof repairs, and a light cleaning for the wagons. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, with a special opening for Frontier Army Days on Oct. 24. Which wagon are you most curious to see up close?
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Local Lawton
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