Fort Sill

Fort Sill, U.S. military reservation, Comanche co., SW Okla., 4 mi (6.4 km) N of Lawton; est. 1869 by Gen. Philip Sheridan. A 95,000-acre (38,445-hectare) field artillery and missile base, it is the home of the U.S. Army Artillery and Missile Center. Fort Sill was named in memory of Joshua W. Sill, a Civil War general. The Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche, and other Native American groups were given homes on the reservation and trained in agriculture; Geronimo (who is buried in the Apache cemetery there), was imprisoned at the fort. The reservation was almost abandoned in 1904; it was revitalized by the establishment (1911) of a school that was to become the U.S. army's main field artillery training base. There are 48 designated historic sites in the Fort Sill area.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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