• Ojo del Oso (in Spanish meaning "Eye of the Bear" or "Bear Spring") was a Navajo place visited for good grazing and water.
19th century • 1849: A hay camp was set up near
Seboyeta, New Mexico and was called Fort Wingate. It was named for Major Benjamin Wingate, 5th U.S. Infantry, who died on 1 June 1862 from wounds he received during the
Battle of Valverde. • 1860: Fort Fauntleroy was established at Bear Springs (Ojo del Oso) as an outpost of
Fort Defiance. Colonel
Thomas T. Fauntleroy named the fort for himself. • 1868: Navajo people returning from Bosque Redondo were temporarily settled at the Oso Del Ojo Fort Wingate before spreading out into the newly established Navajo Reservation. • 1873–1886: The fort's troops participated in
Apache Wars with troops and recruited
Navajo Scouts. • 1878: Fort Wingate had 137 troops. , a
Medal of Honor recipient, posed with his favorite horse, Blue, in front of his quarters.'' • 1868–1895: Fort Wingate troops often settled disagreements between Navajo and "citizens" in New Mexico. • 1891: Fort Wingate troops assisted Arizona units against angry
Hopis.
20th century • 1907: Two troops of the
5th Cavalry went from Fort Wingate to the
Four Corners area after some armed Navajo. This was the last armed expedition the US Government made against the Navajo. One Navajo was killed and the rest escaped. • 1911: A Ft. Wingate company of cavalry went to
Chaco Canyon and camped there several days to quell a possible uprising by Navajo. • 1914: During the
Mexican Civil War over 2,000 Mexican soldiers and their families took refuge at the fort. • 1918: Fort Wingate focus turned from Navajo to
World War I. • 1940: Fort Wingate became an
ammunition depot from World War II until 1993. • 1944: Fort Wingate supplied 100 tons of
Composition B high explosives to the
Manhattan Project for use in the first
Trinity test. • 1950:
Bureau of Indian Affairs was given part of the polluted land for an Indian boarding school. • 1960–67:
Redstone and
Pershing 1 missiles were tested among others at Wingate. • 1971: DoD Placed Fort Wingate on reserve and re-designated as "Fort Wingate Depot Activity" or FWDA. • 1988: the
Base Realignment and Closure round 1 decided to close the Fort. • Environmental restoration activities at FWDA began in 1989. • In December 2005, the
New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) issued the Army a
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit. • As of 2016, FWDA spread across 21,131 acres, occupied 15,280 acres of land and a BRAC acreage of 14,666. • Environmental cleanup and land transfer to the surrounding community continues to the present, through at least 2022. 5,854 acres have already been transferred to the Department of Interior. Explosives,
perchlorates and nitrates are the primary contaminant in the northern groundwater plumes which have not migrated off-post, all other sites consist of relatively minor soil or building contamination without groundwater issues but with explosives,
SVOCs, and metals like lead. ==Geography==