Fort Ruger is a fort on the island of Oahu

Oahu

Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

 that served as the first military reservation in the Territory of Hawaii

Territory of Hawaii

The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...

. Named after Civil War General Thomas H. Ruger

Thomas H. Ruger

Thomas Howard Ruger was an American soldier and lawyer who served as a Union general in the American Civil War. After the war, he was a superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York....

 and built in and around Diamond Head

Diamond Head, Hawaii

Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēahi, most likely from lae 'browridge, promontory' plus ahi 'tuna' because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin...

 Crater, the fort was established by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1909 for the purpose of defending the harbor of its newly annex

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

ed territory.

History

Fort Ruger was the site of Battery Harlow, armed with eight 12-inch mortars. The fort's prominent location on Diamond Head made it a natural fire control station, with several posts built into Leahi Peak.

Despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

, portions of the site are still used for training by the Hawaii National Guard

Hawaii National Guard

The Hawaii National Guard consists of the Hawaii Army National Guard and the Hawaii Air National Guard. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. In fact, the National Guard is the only United States military force empowered...

.

Today

Few of the original buildings survive. The most striking are three sets of stone structures that mark former gates to the fort. On the Waikiki

Waikiki

Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī....

 side, there is a pair of gateposts on either side of the sidewalk and a square stone bunker across the street with a gun slit in the outside wall and with crenels and merlon

Merlon

In architecture, a merlon forms the solid part of an embattled parapet, sometimes pierced by embrasures. The space between two merlons is usually called a crenel, although those later designed and used for cannons were called embrasures.-Etymology:...

s along the top, as if it were a battlement

Battlement

A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...

 in a European castle. On the Kahala

Kahala

Kāhala, Honolulu, Hawaii is a neighborhood located alongside Kaimuki and Waialae, featuring many beachfront properties. This small neighborhood has some of the most expensive real estate in the city of Honolulu and the state of Hawaii....

 side is a larger stone gatehouse with rounded edges of the kind popular in the 1930s. Between them, on the Kaimuki side, is a purely decorative structure, a circular stonewalled planter with two jagged stone arches intersecting at 90-degree angles. It now stands at the edge of the Kapiolani Community College

Kapiolani Community College

Kapiolani Community College, formerly Kapiolani Technical School, is a public, co-educational commuter college in Honolulu, Hawaii situated on the slopes of Diamond Head in Waikīkī...

parking lot, but was once flanked by two large gun barrels.