Fort Gates Came Before Gatesville

Fort Gates was established in 1849 as a frontier post on the Leon River. It was part of a chain of forts meant to protect settlers from Comanche raids on the western edge of Texas settlement. The Army abandoned it in 1852 when the frontier line moved farther west.

Even after the fort closed, settlers stayed. When the Texas legislature created Coryell County in 1854, residents briefly used the old fort site as a county seat. They then voted to move the seat to a new townsite nearby, which they named Gatesville in honor of the old fort. The fort site is about one mile southeast of modern Gatesville on State Highway 36.