{"id":1206,"slug":"fort-washita-durant-oklahoma","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Fort Washita was built in 1842 for the Chickasaw Nation — a frontier post protecting the removed tribes on their new lands, held by the U.S. through 1861 and by the Confederacy through the war. The Chickasaw Nation acquired it — the file's arc being a fort built for a removed nation, now kept by that nation.","The fort's layered occupation is the record: federal post, Confederate stronghold, Chickasaw property — a fort whose purpose changed with each holding power."]},{"heading":"Aunt Jane","paragraphs":["TravelOK records the Aunt Jane legend — the fort's named ghost, a woman whose identity the lore keeps without a full biography, reported at the post for generations. The file's ghost is the frontier's domestic register: a woman in a fort that held armies, her name the legend's only record.","Aunt Jane is the file's signature — a ghost with a familial name in a military fort, the post's most persistent resident in a place whose documented history is all garrison and transfer."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Fort Washita is the archive's Chickasaw file — a fort built for the removed nation, held by two armies, keeping a woman's ghost named Aunt Jane. The occupations are the record; Aunt Jane is the lore — a fort's most domestic legend in its most military setting.","A fort that changed hands between nations keeps the ghost that outlasted them all — the file's suggestion being that Aunt Jane's tenure is the post's longest."]}],"name":"Fort Washita","aliases":[],"type":"FORT","type_label":"Fort","cats":["HAUNTED_PLACE"],"groups":["hauntings","institutions"],"desc":"Fort in Durant; research record.","full_desc":"Fort Washita is a fort in Durant, Oklahoma. Fort in Durant; research record. The Chickasaw Nation dates construction to 1842, U.S. occupation through 1861 and Confederate occupation to 1861–1865. It acquired management in 2016 and ownership in 2017. Local lore holds that TravelOK records the Aunt Jane ghost legend.","address":"3348 State Road 199","city":"Durant","county":null,"state":"Oklahoma","postal":"74701","region":"South","lat":33.995153,"lon":-96.39254,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":"TRIBAL","website":"https://www.chickasaw.net/Our-Nation/Locations/Fort-Washita.aspx","phone":"580-924-6502","year_built":1842,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Register of Historic Places","current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":66.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.8,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":487,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"TravelOK records the Aunt Jane ghost legend. Ground that took casualties rarely stays quiet in local memory, and Fort Washita in Durant, Oklahoma took its share. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The account appears in 'Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma'. It's the kind of claim that outlives debunkings — too many witnesses, too few explanations.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Aunt Jane","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.65,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma","url":"https://www.travelok.com/articles/top-haunted-places-in-oklahoma","publisher":"Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The Chickasaw Nation dates construction to 1842, U.S. occupation through 1861 and Confederate occupation to 1861–1865. It acquired management in 2016 and ownership in 2017. A fort with documented casualties writes its own foundation — the lore comes after. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Fort Washita' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Washita","url":"https://www.chickasaw.net/Our-Nation/Locations/Fort-Washita.aspx","publisher":"Chickasaw Nation","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"TravelOK records the Aunt Jane ghost legend. Old military ground in Durant, Oklahoma carries its dead the way it carries its walls — permanently. 'Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The story outranks the documentation, which is how you know it's folklore.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma","url":"https://www.travelok.com/articles/top-haunted-places-in-oklahoma","publisher":"Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[{"name":"Aunt Jane","claimed_identity":"Aunt Jane","verified":null,"summary":"TravelOK records the Aunt Jane ghost legend. The fort's documented violence is the soil the reports grow in — Durant, Oklahoma keeps both on file. 'Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma' carries the account. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is Aunt Jane. The claim holds its place in the ledger.","behavior":"TravelOK records the Aunt Jane ghost legend.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma","url":"https://www.travelok.com/articles/top-haunted-places-in-oklahoma","publisher":"Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"opening_hours":"Tuesday–Saturday 9 am–4:30 pm; closed Sunday and Monday.","tour_availability":"Group tours by advance arrangement.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:20+00:00","source":{"name":"Fort Washita","url":"https://www.chickasaw.net/Our-Nation/Locations/Fort-Washita.aspx","publisher":"Chickasaw Nation","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma","url":"https://www.travelok.com/articles/top-haunted-places-in-oklahoma","publisher":"Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},{"name":"Fort Washita","url":"https://www.chickasaw.net/Our-Nation/Locations/Fort-Washita.aspx","publisher":"Chickasaw Nation","type":"OFFICIAL_SITE","authority":2},{"name":"Fort Washita Historic Site & Museum","url":"https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.2838","publisher":"Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.","incoming_value":"Primary/site-specific enrichment; earlier legend provenance retained separately. Conflict: TravelOK lists U.S. departure in 1862 and Sunday opening; the tribal owner gives 1861 and Sunday closure. Owner chronology and hours used; conflicting listing retained in provenance.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Fort Washita","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Washita","desc":"United States historic place","extract":"Fort Washita is the former United States military post and National Historic Landmark located in Durant, Oklahoma on SH 199. Established in 1842 by General Zachary Taylor to protect citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations from the Plains Indians, it was later abandoned by Federal forces at the beginning of the American Civil War. Confederate troops held the post until the end of the war when they burned the remaining structures. It was never reoccupied by the United States military. After years in private hands the Oklahoma Historical Society bought the fort grounds in 1962 and restored the site. In 2017, the Chickasaw Nation purchased Fort Washita from the Oklahoma Historical Society ","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Ftwashita_west_barracks.gif/330px-Ftwashita_west_barracks.gif?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":108,"lat":34.10361111,"lon":-96.54833333},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":3}}