Fort Sumner is in DeBaca County, and in the Southeast New Mexico region. You can find Fort Sumner north of Roswell between Vaughn and Clovis along US Highway 60 on the banks of the Pecos River near Sumner Lake.
October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the buildings of the military Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo, a space forty miles square. This fort would be the first Indian reservation west of Oklahoma Indian Territory. Resting on the Pecos River, the town of Fort Sumner, New Mexico was first known as Sunnyside, New Mexico ( in San Miguel County) with a post office from 1878 to 1882.