Established as Camp Halleck by Captain S.P. Smith July 26, 1867, to protect the California Emigrant Trail and construction work on the Central Pacific Railroad. The Camp was named for Major General Henry Wager Halleck, at that time Commander, Military Division of the Pacific. In May 1868, it became headquarters for the Nevada Military District when Fort Churchill was abandoned.

On April 5, 1879, it became Fort Halleck. The nine square mile reservation was set aside October 11, 1881. The fort was a two-company post, with about twenty buildings of wood, adobe and stone construction, arranged around the side of a rectangular parade ground.

Troops from the fort took no part in local Indian troubles. However, they saw action in February, 1873, against the Modoc Indians of northern California; against the Nez Perce uprising in Idaho in 1877; in 1878, against the Bannocks in Oregon; and against the Apaches in Arizona, 1883.

The fort was closed December 1, 1886.

State Historic Marker No. 47 Nevada Sate Park System Northeastern Nevada Historical Society