Without the army protection, it is doubtful the hide towns would ever have emerged, or that the buffalo hunters would have come and stayed. The forts were established to create a line of protection for the settlements in Texas to the east, but instead made a handy refuge for the hunters to the north and west. Once the supply lines were established, bringing goods to the army posts, and with them mail, and women, and whiskey, the forts became sitting ducks for sin and degradation... and burdened with extended duties into the wilderness... which was crawling with hostile Comanches and Kiowas.
Not much is left of Ft. Griffin, the legendary frontier outpost where the worst in America cut their teeth. The stone ruins tell us that the Government had semi-permanent plans for the region, and that the buildings were intended to be used a long time. It's not the first time the Federal Government made an expensive misstep. Ft. Griffin sprung up like a desert flower and shriveled fairly quickly, even for an army post. As the Indians were subdued and gathered on the reservations, the need for them evaporated and the Government put its money elsewhere. With the Indians and the buffalo gone, the people there had to find a new reason for living on the edge of the earth... and they soon found it. These forts opened up a vast cattle rangeland that stretched all the way to Canada.
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