11/01/2026
🐴 Picture 12,000 horses at one fort on the Nebraska plains.
That was Fort Robinson in 1943. The Army made it a quartermaster remount depot in 1919, a place where horses were bought, conditioned and trained to go to the cavalry. By the time of the Second World War, about 12,000 horses were there, and nearly 10,000 mules were trained or issued by the war's end.
The fort's story was bigger than horses. A K-9 Corps reception and training center opened in the fall of 1942, and about 14,000 dogs shipped through it. A prisoner of war camp was built in 1943. The Army decided to abandon the post in 1947, and it ceased as a military installation in 1948, after about 74 years.
The American Quarter Horse Association calls Fort Robinson the last U.S. Army cavalry remount depot. That is a nice way to frame it: the end of an era when armies still relied on horses and mules to move.
Today the Nebraska State Historical Society tells the fort's history. If you ever drive through the pine ridge country, imagine those pastures full of horses.
Would you have wanted to see a remount depot at its busiest? 🌲
