Officers of the Remount service belonged to the Soldier Creek Hunt Club and hunted coyotes with their pack of Welch, English and French stag hounds. The men of the post during this period were proud of their extensive swine and dairy herds and flocks of poultry maintained to add variety to their regular rations, just as the troops of the garrison during the Indian wars raised much of their own food.
The Fourth Field Artillery battalion joined the Remount Service at Fort Robinson from 1928 until 1932. The artillery men made extensive tests of pack artillery organization and equipment such as the Phillips pack saddle. One such test was a five hundred mile march to the Black Hills and return, during which they hauled a mountain howitzer to the top of Harney Peak.
In World War II Fort Robinson’s remount activities were continued and expanded, and thousands of horses and mules were conditioned for military service. The post made other contributions to the war effort as well. The Fort Robinson War Dog Reception and Training Center was activated on October 3, 1942, and on March 15, 1943 a Prisoner of War Camp was added.
There were kennels for 2,000 dogs and over 6,000 canine patients were treated in the special dog hospital before the installation was closed in September 1946. War dogs were trained for several types of duty, including sentry, trail, tactical, sledge, pack and hospital service. The internment camp had space for 3,000 German prisoners of war. Only one prisoner escaped from the camp, and he was recaptured in York, Nebraska.
BUILDING FORT ROBINSON
Several building periods can be identified in the development of Fort Robinson. The following description of the old post was written when it was under construction in 1874.
The camp is 160 yards square. Officers’ quarters are on the north, infantry barracks on the east and west and cavalry barracks, guard house and storehouse on the south sides. The barracks are built of logs, in panels of 15 feet each. For the infantry they are two in number, each 150 by 24 feet by 9 feet high to the eaves, divided in the center to accommodate two companies. They have a shed extension at the rear, 12 feet wide, the length of the building, partitioned off for mess-rooms, kitchens and wash rooms. The cavalry barrack is built in the same way, but only 90 feet long, for the accommodation of one company with mess-room and kitchen like the others. These buildings are unceiled, have shingle roofs, log walls, window sashes and are floored. One building 142 by 24 feet, 8¼ feet to eaves, and from eaves to ridge 7½ feet, is built of logs, with shingle roof, and divided into twelve sets of two rooms each, and occupied as quarters for married soldiers and laundresses.
The officer’s quarters are to be all alike, six sets being authorized each 38 feet long by 32 feet wide and 10 feet high, one for the commanding officer and five for company officers. They have stone foundations,[41] walls of adobe [bricks] and are to be ceiled by boards and plastered. In each building there are to be four rooms, 15 feet square, with a central hall, four feet wide. The dining rooms and kitchens in the rear are to be made of lumber.[42]
The warehouses, stables, and other buildings of the early post were constructed of logs, log slabs, or boards. The first post hospital, a log building, was not completed until November 1875, tents and dugouts being used to house the sick and the post surgeon until that time. In addition to the military buildings there was a post trader’s residence and store-saloon, and next to it a small log building housing a photographer’s studio.
The beginning of the new decade in the 1880’s saw some expansion of the post with the construction of another log barracks, an adobe barracks for the band, and a residence for the band leader. The replacement of the log hospital by a concrete structure and other additions were all made before 1886. In 1887 expansion of Fort Robinson, connected with projected reduction of Fort Laramie, took place on a newly established parade ground, northwest of the original one, along the north side of which was constructed a series of duplex adobe brick officers’ quarters, six in number. On the opposite side, adobe brick barracks were built, and beyond them new frame cavalry stables. The post commander, Col. Edward Hatch, wanted to use fired brick for the new quarters but was overruled despite the equality of cost and the superior quality of fired brick. Only a year later a forty hour storm caused the unprotected walls of some of the adobe houses to collapse. However, once repaired, they proved durable and are still in use today.
In the early 1890’s Fort Robinson was further expanded with the construction of additional officers’ quarters in 1891, and the following year more storehouses and a much needed replacement for the old guardhouse were added. New gun sheds, quartermaster stables, wheelwright and blacksmith shops also were built in the 1890’s.