Antique hunters find relics from old Fort Cobb

<br>FORT COBB, Okla. (AP) _ A man using a metal detector to look for old toys has found what appears to be the site of old Fort Cobb, a U.S. military garrison established in 1859 to protect immigrants

Monday, September 30th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FORT COBB, Okla. (AP) _ A man using a metal detector to look for old toys has found what appears to be the site of old Fort Cobb, a U.S. military garrison established in 1859 to protect immigrants and the Choctaw and Chickasaw people from raids by Plains tribes.

``I was sitting around one day, telling my mother, 'I wish I had those old Hot Wheels I used to play with,''' George Guy said. ``I said, 'I bet they are worth some money now.' So I bought a metal detector and started looking on our property.''

Guy's grandmother, Gladys, mentioned an old blacksmith shop. Gladys said her late husband, Harry, used to talk about the old shop, and thought it used to be on the back of the family's land allotment, which dates back to 1882.

Guy followed his grandmother's lead in July and immediately began unearthing horseshoes, handmade nails, metal buttons and lead balls. His search yields artifacts every day _ an old pocket watch, an old metal pan and even a mint-condition coin dated 1856.

``It all makes sense now,'' Gladys said. ``Old No. 9 highway used to run right by this place, and my husband said he always remembered people riding by here in covered wagons.''

Guy believes the trail used to lead travelers by old Fort Cobb.

Representatives from Fort Sill and the Oklahoma Historical Society have spoken with Guy about sending archaeologists to the site.

Artifacts unearthed by Guy have come from a wooded site just southwest of present-day downtown Fort Cobb, about 60 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The site is located atop a small bluff with Fort Cobb Creek flowing to the west, evidence that is generally associated with frontier military garrisons.

Historians have long been unclear as to the exact location of the old fort from which the town of Fort Cobb is named.

``I believe he has found the old fort,'' said Ernest Topah, historian for the Kiowa Tribe. ``This is an extremely significant find, especially as far as we are concerned. Our people would have used this fort. They would have received their rations and supplies here.''

Topah recently inspected the site with Guy, who also is a member of the Kiowa tribe. Guy plans to donate some of his artifacts to the tribe's museum in Carnegie.

During the Civil War, Fort Cobb fell under Confederate control. After the war, the fort became prominent again in frontier expansion, housing military giants such as Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Sheridan and Custer used Fort Cobb as their command post after the Battle of Washita in November 1868. The Custer-led attack killed more than 100 Cheyenne men, women and children.

The United States abandoned Fort Cobb on March 12, 1869, in favor of a new site located near present-day Lawton. The new site became Fort Sill.

``I think this is all pretty exciting,'' Guy said. ``Every time I go down there, I come back with bags of stuff _ stuff 160 years old.''