Fort Phantom Hill Still Stands in Stone North of Hawley

The U.S. Army established Fort Phantom Hill on November 14, 1851, on the Clear Fork of the Brazos in present-day Jones County. Troops left on April 6, 1854, and most of the post's wooden buildings burned after the soldiers were gone. What survived gives the place its look: stone buildings, chimneys, the powder magazine, the guardhouse, and old foundations out on the prairie.

The ruins got a second life after the army left. The Texas Historical Commission marker says Fort Phantom Hill was repaired and used by the Southern Overland Mail from 1858 to 1861. It also says the village around the old post briefly served as Jones County's temporary county seat in 1881 before Anson became the courthouse town. That makes the site feel like more than a leftover fort: it ties together army, stagecoach, and county-origin history in one Jones County place.