The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Richard Mize column [The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City]

Nov. 26--DURANT -- Historic Fort Washita's best days, in modern times, could still lie ahead -- despite the September 2010 arson that left a barracks in ashes.

However, considering the state government budget, the cautious mood of the philanthropy minded and the generally shaky tenor of these economic times, it will be years before the two-story, 126-by-51-foot building will be rebuilt. Again.

What burned down was a replica of a barracks that stood at the frontier post in the 1840s. The barracks replica, built in the 1970s, along with unimproved ruins and the lay of the land and size of the historic site and state park, was popular among teachers and students and re-enactors of the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Indian wars.

"It's the best place in the country to do re-enactments," said Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, which owns and manages the site.

And so the barracks at Fort Washita, on Oklahoma Highway 199 some 15 miles northwest of Durant, or 15 miles east of Madill, is well worth rebuilding again, Blackburn said. Texas-based re-enactors, especially, love the place, he said.

The barracks was covered by the state's self-insurance, he said, but only up to $250,000 and over $1 million. And for original cost, not replacement cost. Rebuilding it -- with restrooms and handicapped accessibility this time -- is estimated to cost from $1.2 million to $1.5 million, Blackburn said.

That means the Historical Society is in a hole, a doughnut hole -- the $750,000 or so missing in the middle. But Blackburn said he hopes to leverage a $250,000 challenge grant from a foundation and solicit other donors to get the barracks up again. Thomas Small Architects in Edmond has the plans drawn up.

In the meantime, the base of the original barracks is being protected from rain and cold weather, which could do irreparable damage to mortar in place since the fort was built in 1842 to protect the newly relocated Chickasaws from aggressive Plains Indians just to the west.

Fort Washita, from a historical perspective, was worth doing. Getting the barracks back up -- in the kind of dance between history and modernity that makes the past come alive for our own posterity -- is worth doing right.

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