Fort Keogh

Fort Keogh
2 miles (3.2 km) west of Miles City in Custer County, Montana
Officers' Quarters at Fort Keogh in 1989
Site information
Controlled by	United States
Site history
Built	1876
In use	1876–1924
Battles/wars	Indian Wars
Fort Keogh
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Nearest city	Miles City, Montana
Coordinates	46°22′32″N 105°53′00″W / 46.37556°N 105.88333°W / 46.37556; -105.88333
Area	10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built	1877
NRHP reference No.	78001680[1]
Added to NRHP	March 8, 1978
Garrison information
Past commanders	Colonel Nelson A. Miles, 5th Infantry Colonel Peter T. Swaine, 22nd Infantry
Garrison	Fifth Infantry Twenty-Second Infantry Second Cavalry Eighth Cavalry

Fort Keogh is a former United States Army post located at the western edge of modern Miles City, in the U.S. state of Montana. It is situated on the south bank of the Yellowstone River, at the mouth of the Tongue River.

Colonel Nelson A. Miles, commanding the 5th Infantry Regiment, founded the post in August 1876, in the wake of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as a base for patrols to prevent the Cheyenne and Sioux involved in the battle from escaping to Canada. The fort was originally known as the Tongue River Cantonment for two years. When relocated one mile west in 1878, it was renamed Fort Keogh in honor of Captain Myles Keogh, who was killed at the Little Bighorn. In 1877, the fort became the headquarters for the newly created District of the Yellowstone (a sub-unit of the Department of Dakota), which was commanded by Miles.

The development of Fort Keogh as a military installation soon stimulated traders to supply the liquor and other service businesses that were the beginning of Miles City. Today the former military post is a United States Department of Agriculture livestock and range research station. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[2]