Trails and Treasures Home Page  Road Trips  Across America 2004 Santa Fe Trail

Fort Larned National Historic Site

In 1859 the army established a camp on the Pawnee Fork to provide a presence on the Santa Fe Trail.  The following year construction of a permanent fort was begun a short distance to the west in an oxbow of the Pawnee Fork.  This fort was named Fort Larned, after the Army’s Paymaster-General.  Soldiers stationed at the post escorted parties traveling the Santa Fe Trail through areas where the Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyenne preyed upon intruders.  From Ft. Larned, Custer led a campaign against Black Kettle’s Cheyenne along the Washita River in 1868 that effectively ended hostilities in the area.  In the early 1870s Fort Larned provided protection for workers building the railroad west from Topeka.  Once the railroad was completed, travel by wagon on the Santa Fe Trail gradually ceased as did the need for Fort Larned’s protective services.  The fort was abandoned in 1878 and eventually sold at public auction.  For 80 years it was private property.  In 1964 Fort Larned became part of the National Park System.

Barracks and Shops Building	Front Porch of Barracks	Company Officers' Quarters

The first buildings at the fort were poorly constructed of adobe.  In 1866 construction began on new, more permanent buildings.  By 1868, nine new stone and timber buildings surrounded the quadrangle parade ground.  They still exist today.  The blockhouse, which was dismantled around 1900, was reconstructed by the park service.  The original buildings include enlisted men’s barracks, post hospital, bakery, blacksmith shop, an all-purpose workshop, commissary, quartermaster’s storeroom, officer’s quarters, and commanding officer’s quarters.

Post Hospital Pharmacy	Company C, 3rd Infantry Kitchen	Quartermaster Food Stores

Later in the day after my visit to Fort Larned, I visited Fort Hays which dates from the same time period.  While Ft. Hays has fewer buildings, I found the interior of the officer's quarters to be much more interesting that those at Ft. Larned.