An 1849 Army Fort Repurposed as a Community College
1 West End Washington St, Laredo, TX 78040
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to walk the historic fort district grounds; college campus open to the public.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus paths; some historic building interiors may have steps
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1849 · Fort McIntosh Historic District · National Register of Historic Places · Mexican-American War · Civil War Military Post
The bluff that Fort McIntosh occupies rises roughly 50 feet above the Rio Grande, commanding a long view in both directions — exactly the kind of defensible ground military engineers preferred in 1849. Camp Crawford, as it was initially designated, was established on March 3 of that year, operating under orders to anchor the new international border established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Construction began in 1853 with a star-shaped earthen fortification. Over the following decades the fort was expanded into a permanent installation with masonry barracks, officers' quarters, and support structures that still stand on the campus. The installation was named for Lt. Col. James Simmons McIntosh, one of the officers killed at the Battle of Molino del Rey in September 1847 during the siege of Mexico City.
Fort McIntosh saw active use through the Civil War, the Indian wars, and the punitive expeditions against Pancho Villa in the 1910s. It was decommissioned in 1946, at which point the military removed its dead: the fort's cemetery was formally cleared, and the remains were relocated to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Fort officials at the time stated that all remains had been accounted for, though local accounts have maintained skepticism about the completeness of that removal.
In 1947, the Laredo Independent School District established Laredo Junior College on the fort grounds to serve returning World War II veterans. The school was renamed Laredo Community College in 1993. The Fort McIntosh Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the college's downtown campus continues to occupy buildings constructed more than a century ago.
Sources
The cemetery that once served Fort McIntosh was cleared when the military departed in 1946, but reports of apparitions on the campus have continued for decades.
The most specifically documented presence is described as a girl approximately 8 to 10 years old with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a white dress and button-up boots — a boot style that fell out of common use around 1917. She has been reported in multiple campus buildings and on the grounds. During a formal paranormal investigation, investigators captured a photograph they identified as showing a shadowy figure consistent in height with a child in the background of a room that appeared empty at the time.
A college baseball team reported an unexplained encounter at the tree line of the campus: a figure appearing to hang from a branch that vanished before they reached it. No historical record has been identified connecting this account to a specific incident at the fort.
Laredo author Chris James, a retired Border Patrol agent who has written about the region's paranormal history for nearly three decades, has documented the Fort McIntosh campus accounts and organized ghost tours of the property. His investigations and written accounts are the primary source for the specific details above.
The discomfort at the campus cemetery site persists in local memory even though the cemetery itself no longer physically exists — a common phenomenon at locations where interments were removed rather than allowed to rest.
Notable Entities
The Laredo College main campus occupies the grounds and buildings of Fort McIntosh, established in 1849 at the close of the Mexican-American War. Military brick buildings from the 19th century now house classrooms and offices. The fort's cemetery was decommissioned when the military departed in 1946; campus maps still show its former location.
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