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.