Fort Stevenson was a frontier military fort in the 19th century in what was then Dakota Territory

Dakota Territory

The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...

 and what is now North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

. The fort was abandoned in 1883 with the sale of all buildings and property. In 1901 the lands encompassing the Fort Stevenson Military Reservation were sold to Black and Associates, a group of eastern businessmen. The group originally planned to raise sugar beets on the acreages but instead dropped those plans and sold off much of the land to adjacent landowners. Several buildings remained on the site until the 1940s. The location was inundated by the rising waters of Garrison Reservoir, later renamed Lake Sakakawea, in the late 1950s and today is under about 120 feet of water. The site was located about nine miles southwest of the city of Garrison, ND. A state park is located on the shores of Lake Sakakawea about 4 miles from the original fort's location. A replica of the old fort's guardhouse was constructed at the park in 2003, named Fort Stevenson State Park, and serves as a museum and informational center relating to the old military installation.

The fort was named for Thomas G. Stevenson

Thomas G. Stevenson

Thomas G. Stevenson was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action during the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse.-Biography:...

, a Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 general who was killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania.

Life at the fort features heavily in the memoir of Régis de Trobriand

Régis de Trobriand

Philippe Régis Denis de Keredern de Trobriand was a French aristocrat, lawyer, poet, and novelist who emigrated at a young age to the United States...

, the commander of the fort. He describes interactions with the Mandan, Hidatsa

Hidatsa

The Hidatsa are a Siouan people, a part of the Three Affiliated Tribes. The Hidatsa's autonym is Hiraacá. According to the tribal tradition, the word hiraacá derives from the word "willow"; however, the etymology is not transparent and the similarity to mirahací ‘willows’ inconclusive...

, and Arikara

Arikara

Arikara are a group of Native Americans in North Dakota...

 tribes, and their hostilities with another group of tribes, the Sioux

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

.

It was built in 1867, and abandoned in 1883.