In 1867, construction began by the 6th Cavalry on the site along "Lost Creek, a small tributary of the West Fork of the Trinity River", at a cost of $800,000, and occupied on 26 November. It became the anchor of the frontier fort system, and the last army outpost in North Texas along the military road to Fort Sill. "Originally a five-company post, it was expanded...to accommodate ten or more companies" so that in 1872, with a population of 666 officers and men, it was listed as the largest U.S. Army installation in the United States. Old-time cowboy author Frank H. Maynard spent time at Fort Richardson in 1872 when he had come to Jacksboro on a cattle drive.