“1832 Bean and Boone Expedition” living history program
September 27, 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
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Fort Gibson Historic Site will host a living history weekend on Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28. This program will focus on the Bean and Boone Expedition, originally launched from the military outpost in 1832. Each day from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., living history Rangers will bring the fort’s stockade to life, reenacting typical activities of soldiers at the fort in the 1830s.
On Friday, September 27, the public can view historians playing Captain Jesse Bean and Captain Nathan Boone, along with groups of soldiers, begin to set up camp and settle into the stockade area. Reenactors in period clothing will be on hand to discuss and demonstrate the equipment soldiers and the United States Mounted Rangers would have used in their daily lives and what was needed to undertake an expedition at a time when Fort Gibson was on the edge of a new frontier.
On Saturday, September 28, through a day full of activities, the group will reenact the Bean and Boone Expedition of 1832, demonstrating the fort’s early role as a starting point for several military expeditions that explored the West.
Initially, Bean was to join the Blackhawk war with orders to divert to Fort Gibson should he receive word of the war’s end before he arrived. The war ended before he made it, and he diverted his men to Fort Gibson, where Col. Arbuckle was already overloaded with soldiers. The arrival of the Mounted Rangers brought the population of the fort to nearly 900 men, not including the civilians, laundresses, enslaved people, and others needed to support the operations of the site. The Mounted Rangers were initially directed to set up camp north of the stockade near a stream today called Ranger Creek. With a large influx of troops, Col. Arbuckle assigned Rangers to ride out to meet with the Plains Nations to develop peace and safe passage treaties to further westward expansion.
This program is included with paid admission. It will be located on the grounds of the Fort Gibson Historic Site, both within the stockade and north of the stockade, at 110 Ash Street in Fort Gibson. Portions of the program take place over uneven ground, and visitors can expect a short walk to view all areas of the demonstrations.
Soldier Tents at Fort Gibson (15883, Aylesworth Album Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society).
