By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer

Oil and gas reserves underneath Fort Reno might be a way to save its historic treasures if a Senate bill survives committee review and makes its way to a vote.

The 6,700 acres of the fort have potential to yield oil and gas in sufficient amounts to pay for restoration of the vintage buildings surrounding the fort’s quadrangle, officials say.

Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Tulsa, introduced the Fort Reno Mineral Leasing Act, or S-1832 in October, a proposal now under review by the Senate energy and natural resources committee. The bill authorizes development of the oil and gas underneath the fort lands and places the funds in a special account in the U.S. Treasury for restoration and maintenance of fort facilities.

Profiting from underground reserves is a way of saving the brick and frame buildings that are historic military houses and livestock outbuildings along the parade grounds, said Grazinglands Agricultural Research Station director Herman Mayeux.

“Oil and gas drilling is not a good thing to go on a research facility,” said Mayeux. “But believe me this could be the only way we can save these buildings.”
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, is co-sponsoring the bill. In a press release, Inhofe said the proposal is “fully supported by state legislators, local municipalities, the Chamber of Commerce, farm groups, the USDA, and Mayeux, as the Agricultural Research Service administrator.

The bill would also allow the funds to be used to “assist with handling visitors to the fort, historic interpretations and related activities.”

Inhofe said the fort is an Oklahoma landmark “in desperate need of reparation and preservation to ensure its survival for future generations.” Oil and gas revenues would provide “a revenue-neutral, non-appropriated source of funding, adequate to restore the historical buildings.”

Mayeux said he first discussed the concept of leasing the mineral rights to oil and gas developers several years ago with the late Henry Jo VonTungeln, a nearby farmer-rancher who actively supported the fort’s operation.

He said there is no documentation to show that there are oil or gas reserves on the property.

“None whatsoever, but there has been a lot of high-producing wells north and west of us and a few to the south,” he said. Any leasing of mineral rights or any funds captured from oil and gas wells on government-controlled property goes to the general treasury.

“Congress is not going to mess with that and so you cannot get it changed, but a special fund can be established in that fund for Fort Reno,” Mayeux said. USDA would work with the Department of Interior, the only governmental arm that can lease public lands.

Leasing the mineral rights to allow producers onto the property would be considered only if they minimize the disturbance to the land and streams, he said.

“The only reason we’re doing this is because we’ve got to get these buildings restored,” he said.

Mayeux said Inhofe helped secure a $300,000 Save America’s Treasures grant that is being used to stabilize the exterior of the officers quarters, a 19th century building near the visitors center. Inhofe also arranged for an appropriation of $2.1 million to build two greenhouses for ARS forage grass research.

The fort is operated as an agricultural and climate research station by the USDA-ARS. Several historical outbuildings and barns and the Spanish-mission style headquarters have been renovated using USDA funds.

USDA can spend money from its budget to restore a building if it is used for a specific research purpose, but preservation money to keep officers quarters, commissary and other historic structures along the parade grounds has been hard to come by.

In 2003, Historic Fort Reno Inc. tried unsuccessfully to get $15 million added as a line item to the 2004 budget in $5 million increments over three years.

“That was then and now it would be $18 million to restore all of them,” Mayeux said.

Inhofe’s office said the bill is still under committee review. Mayeux said this proposal would not be a high priority.

“We’re asking this in the long-term, not the short-term. It will take awhile. We just wanted to get it on the radar screen and legislation takes forever, especially when it’s not a high priority and by that I mean not a national issue. We’re just glad it went to committee,” Mayeux said.

The fort’s restoration plan is one of several dozen on the Oklahoma Centennial Commission’s master plan.

The fort was established as a frontier cavalry post in 1874, playing a key role in settlement of the West. It was a military post until shortly after World War II and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.