USDA To Demolish 14 Buildings at Historic Ft Reno

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nich018

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The federal government is tearing down more than a dozen buildings at historic Fort Reno in Canadian County.

The former Army post established in 1875 is now owned by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Leaders at the Historic Fort Reno Museum claim the USDA used COVID-19 as an excuse to keep them off the property as demolition began.

“It has been two weeks since I’ve been here and I walked into wrecking crews and structures being reduced to rubble,” museum director Wendy Ogden said.

“They’re in the process of destroying history and we can’t get it back,” museum board president Marie Hearst said.

According to the USDA, 14 buildings are slated to be demolished, eight have historic designations, two were built in 1890.

In filings with the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, the department said “USDA-ARS does not have the funds to complete the needed repairs/renovations in order to make these buildings operational for research purposes.”

“When you don’t have the funds or you don’t do the maintenance, we call it deferred maintenance,” Deputy State Preservation Officer Lynda Ozan said. “Well, deferred maintenance is really no maintenance and when that happens for long enough, the buildings start to fail. So, the roofs fail, the foundations fail, and that’s what has led us to the situation.”

“The USDA gets maintenance money from the U.S. government to maintain this property,” Hearst said. “I feel like there’s a huge amount of neglect here.”

Congressman Frank Lucas said in a statement he and Senators Jim Inhofe and James Lankford are looking into the demolition.

“The USDA understands the importance of maintaining the historical value of the El Reno property and continues to maintain and upgrade existing buildings to keep El Reno functional and operational for decades to come,” A USDA Spokesperson said. “However, the buildings currently being demolished pose a serious risk to employees and visitors to El Reno.”

The department said a 2017 inspection found the buildings to be “unsafe, uninhabitable and unable to be preserved.” They said a demolition plan was presented to the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office, Oklahoma Archeological Survey, The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Historic Fort Reno Board of Directors.

The Historic Fort Reno Board of Directors said they were never notified. The facility sets on Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestral homeland. A tribal official said it appears they too were never notified.

“The federal agency is the one that’s supposed to talk with the community, talk to the land holders, the people that have interest in the property about what their plans are,” Ozan said. “No matter what federal agency were talking about, that’s their obligation.”

Ozan described the buildings slated for demolition as ancillary. The USDA said they include five coal houses, a hay barn, garage and machine shop.

“It is the start of reducing major historic structures on this site to rubble and removing them from the property,” Ogden said. “When it’s gone, it’s gone.”
 

Snattlerake

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I tried and tried to get permission to let our club metal detect there. We were to bring everything we found to a table and have them photograph it and catalog it with GPS coordinates where it was found. I thought I had an "in" once but he quit the next month and my contacts fizzled afterward.

That would be one sweet location.
 

nich018

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The solution is to find enough people that want tp preserve the buildings enough to pony up the necessary funds, and continue to do so into the future. So that’s why so many “historic” buildings are no longer existing.

It's funny how we finally got $50 million* to complete the Indian Cultural Museum in downtown OKC, but zero to Ft Reno.


* source --- The Oklahoman article Oct 29,2018
-Blake Wade, chief executive officer of the Native American Cultural and Educational Authority (NACEA), says $50 million has been deposited in the museum completion fund.
 
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Seadog

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I had no idea about this place. The quadrangle buildings and parade ground look like a clone of Ft Sill. It is sad that some of the history and buildings are being destroyed
 

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nich018

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Nick, you just didn't talk loud enough, I guess. But, I'm not sure that the museum and the deserted buildings at Ft. Reno are in the same category, but I personally don't care enough for either of them to donate my money to maintain them.

David, I'm not asking you to care or donate to save the historic buildings.I believe the state or city should not have let this happen. I just wanted people to be aware of what is going on. We have been there in the past and it is really a neat place to take kids. I believe they have let this fort get neglected for many years and it's just sad to let it go. Once it's gone it's gone.
 
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mr ed

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Were any of the buildings named after confederates? After all we gots to destroy history to appease BLM
 

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