Enlisted and Officer's Sinks -- Fort McKavett State Historic Site, Menard Co. TX - Outhouses on Waymarking.com

These Enlisted and Officer's Sinks at Fort McKavett State Historic Site in Menard Co. TX come complete with an interpretive sign explaining how these 18 seventies frontier toilets were used.

Blasterz were not familiar with "sinks", the type of outhouse where you pee in the bucket and poo through the hole into a drawer lined with earth and lime keep the smell down. The drawers could be removed from outside to dump the poo, and of course buckets of urine could be poured out wherever buckets of urine were supposed to be poured out.

According to the docent, sinks such as these were located behind every building of the Fort. That's a lot of stinky poo to deal with every day :(

I suppose the only positive aspect of the sink of this nature is that there would be enough activity around it so that black widows would not find the undersides of the bench where your bottom goes to be a desirable place to set up shop.

The interpretive sign at the enlisted sinks at Fort McKavett reads as follows:

"A PROCESS OF ELIMINATION

The military called outhouses "sinks," probably from the word "sinkhole." During the 18 seventies there were sinks like these behind almost every building on the Fort.

Toilets and Sinks

In the 18 hundreds, to "perform your toilet" meant to wash up with a wet cloth, brush your teeth, comb your hair and shave. Officers perform their toilet in their rooms, while enlisted men use the river. Taking a full bath in a tub of water was very rare for anyone in the 18 seventies. While out in the field, water had to be carried along in barrels and was in short supply. Horses and mules got water first, then the soldiers, which meant no bathing or shaving for days or weeks at a time.

A Dirty Job

Can you see the waste tray thhough the seat holes? Go around and back of the sink building to see the trap door where they pulled out the tray to clean it.

The 2 doors on the sink you are standing in designated one side for all enlisted men regardless of race in one side for all officers. Urinating in the holes was forbidden, as this interfered with the action of dryer earth and lime sprinkled in the trays to keep the smell down. Army prisoners perform the daily job of cleaning dirty sink trays and urine buckets."

Location: This is a preserved officer and enlisted sink on the grounds of the Fort McKavett state historic site. It is part of an educational display on the lives of the soldiers and people stationed at Fort, including civilians, who were here during the years that the Fort was an active U.S. Army post How many holes?: Not listed Construction: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/30/2022 wanderfish visited it 01/09/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it

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