Fort Gibson

Fort Gibson has the legend of Vivia Thomas surrounding it. Stories say that on the morning of 1870, a soldier was found dead atop a grave in the cemetery located nearby. After a doctor examined the body, he found it was a woman. Vivia was known to be an elegant and educated woman who fell in love with an Army officer. He suddenly left right before their wedding and she found out where he had been stationed at Fort Gibson and set out on a journey to locate him. She cut off her long hair and dressed in men's clothing and enlisted in the Army at Fort Gibson. She had located her lover, who was having an affair with a Native American woman. When he had left to go see the woman who lived nearby, Vivia supposedly followed him and shot him with her rifle, killing him. Soldiers thought he had been killed by Indians and Vivia began spending nights crying at his grave, feeling guilty over what she had done. One night, she froze to death at the grave. A young soldier's apparition has been spotted crying and pacing back and forth. In the cemetery's Circle of Honor, there is a stone that reads "Vivia Thomas, January 7, 1870."