Barracks
5 & 6
Barracks
5 & 6
Construction on Barracks 5 & 6 began in July of 1870 and ended almost a year later. Like Barracks 3 & 4, each building consisted of one 24' x 88' squad room with two 12' x 9' interior orderly rooms. A wing extends northward housing a 24' x 29' 8" mess hall and a 20' x 15' kitchen. These barracks were intended for infantry use, but records show that cavalry units stayed there as well.
After the fort's abandonment in 1889, Barracks 5 & 6 received a slightly better fate than the barracks to the west. In the 1920s Barracks 5 & 6 were utilized by the National Guard as a stables and warehouse, however they too were falling into ruin by the late 1940s. In 1951, they were purchased for the museum. By that time both buildings consisted of partial walls and restoration began to complete them once again.
Today, Barracks 5 houses an exhibit related to the life of the 19th century soldier. The squad room, orderly rooms and mess hall appear today as the might have in the 1870s and 1880s when the post was active. Barracks 6 and its accompanying mess hall are used for museum storage.