Camp Warner

Fort Warner
Lake County, Oregon, U.S.A.
Fort Warner near Honey Creek in 1873
Coordinates	42°25′49″N 119°43′45″W / 42.43025°N 119.72926°W / 42.43025; -119.72926 (Old Camp Warner) 42°23′54″N 120°08′16″W / 42.39839°N 120.13767°W / 42.39839; -120.13767Coordinates: 42°23′54″N 120°08′16″W / 42.39839°N 120.13767°W / 42.39839; -120.13767
Type	Military cantonments
Site information
Owner	U.S. Government (Old Camp Warner); private property (Fort Warner)
Site history
Built	Old Camp Warner, 1866; Fort Warner, 1867
Built by	United States Army
In use	1866–1874

Camp Warner was a United States Army outpost in south-central Oregon, United States. Camp Warner was located at two different sites approximately 35 miles (56 km) apart. The Army called both sites Camp Warner. However, the first site became known as Old Camp Warner. It was used as winter quarters in 1866–1867 and then abandoned. The second, more developed site is generally known as Fort Warner (or New Camp Warner), although the Army never officially designated it as a fort. Fort Warner was used as a supply depot and administrative headquarters from 1867 to 1874 during a protracted Army campaign against Northern Paiute bands in Eastern Oregon and Northern California. Today, nothing remains of either Old Camp Warner or Fort Warner.

In 1865, the Army decided it needed an outpost in the Warner Valley of south-central Oregon to facilitate the interdiction of Indian raiding parties passing through the area. Army scouts from Fort Vancouver selected a site along Honey Creek on the west side of the Warner Lakes in what is today Lake County, Oregon. In 1866, a unit of the 14th Infantry Regiment was sent from Fort Boise to establish the fort. The 14th Infantry came by way of Fort Harney, arriving on the east side of the Warner Lakes in late summer. The Army was unable to cross the Warner Lakes, a chain of lakes and wetlands that stretches more than 70 miles (110 km) north to south. As a result, the soldiers decided to build their outpost 20 miles (32 km) east of the lakes on the eastern slope of Hart Mountain. It was completed on August 10, 1866. The post was named Camp Warner after Captain William H. Warner, a topographical engineer who had explored the area before being killed by Indians in 1849.