Fort Wingate

Fort Wingate
McKinley County, near Gallup, New Mexico
Fort Wingate in the 1870s
Site information
Controlled by New Mexico
Conditionammunition depot, storage facility
Location
Coordinates35°06′45″N 107°52′58″W / 35.112466°N 107.882652°W / 35.112466; -107.882652
Site history
Built1862
Built by United States
In use1862 - 1993
Battles/warsApache Wars
Navajo Wars
Garrison information
Past
commanders
Kit Carson
William Redwood Price
GarrisonNavajo Scouts
Apache Scouts
4th Cavalry
8th Cavalry
9th Cavalry and 13th Infantry
15th Infantry
OccupantsUnited States Army
Fort Wingate Historic District
LocationNM 400, Fort Wingate, New Mexico
Area27 acres (11 ha)
Built1868 (1868)
NRHP reference No.78003076
NMSRCP No.403
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 26, 1978
Designated NMSRCPAugust 22, 1975

Fort Wingate was a military installation near Gallup, New Mexico, United States. There were two other locations in New Mexico called Fort Wingate: Seboyeta (1849–1862) and San Rafael (1862–1868). The most recent Fort Wingate (1868–1993) was established at the former site of Fort Lyon, on Navajo territory, initially to control and "protect" the large Navajo tribe to its north. The fort at San Rafael was the staging point for the Navajo deportation known as the Long Walk of the Navajo. From 1870 onward the garrison near Gallup was concerned with Apaches to the south, and through 1890 hundreds of Navajo Scouts were enlisted at the fort.

Fort Wingate supplied 100 tons of Composition B high explosives to the Manhattan Project for use in the first Trinity test and became an ammunition depot "Fort Wingate Depot Activity" from World War II until it was closed by the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Environmental cleanup of UXO, perchlorate, and lead as well as land transfer continue to the present day.

The Fort Wingate Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The associated community was first listed as the Fort Wingate census-designated place in 2020, with a population of 328 during the 2020 census.