The Guardhouse

The Guardhouse. Native American Scenic Byway. The original Post was composed of the soldier's barracks, two officer's quarters, the commanding officer's quarters, two store houses, a hospital, a bakery, a guard house, the laundress' quarters, the quartermaster's stable and other small outbuildings. Water was brought up from the Missouri River by wagons and wood was furnished through contracts with local wood cutters. , The Post's first structures were built from cottonwood logs sawn from the bottomland. By 1880 all these original buildings had deteriorated and were subsequently replaced with frame structures. The guardhouse derives from this second generation of construction. Apart from the loading dock on the back side and the curfew whistle on the roof, the guard house's exterior has remained essentially unchanged for over a hundred years. The jail cells were located in the basement and the barred windows of these cells can still be seen. , One of the reasons soldiers ended up in the guardhouse were due to visits in Winona. Alcohol was forbidden on the reservation and contact between the troops and Indians was discouraged because many of the troops were of "low moral order" and made advances on passing girls and women. These factors, plus the sheer monotony of military life, led many a man to frequent allures of Winona, a trader's town established on the east bank of the river, directly opposite Fort Yates. , In "Operation Winona" off duty soldiers made nightly assaults on the town by ferry in the summer or on foot or by sleigh in the winter. At its peak, Winona was a lucrative business boasting two hotels, two stores, two restaurants and nine saloons. Fifty to a hundred women were imported to entertain in the saloons and work in the brothels. Small wonder that when the town's name was put to vote, "Devil's Colony" was selected.