Fort Larned National Historic Site, located six miles west of Larned

Larned, Kansas

Larned is a city in and the county seat of Pawnee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,054.-History:...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, preserves Fort Larned, which operated from 1859 to 1878. Fort Larned was established to protect traffic along the Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

 from hostile American Indians, and as an agency for the administration of the Central Plains Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 under the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861. The fort's service ended as a combination of the tribes' relocation to reservations and the completion of railroads across Kansas that ended the need for the Santa Fe Trail.

Fort Larned was the site of a meeting between General Winfield Scott Hancock and several Cheyenne

Cheyenne

Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...

 chiefs on April 12, 1867, in which Hancock intended to impress the Dog Soldier

Dog soldier

The Dog Soldiers or Dog Men was one of six military societies of the Cheyenne Indians. Beginning in the late 1830s, this society evolved into a separate, militaristic band that played a dominant role in Cheyenne resistance to American expansion in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming...

 chiefs with his military power. Following that meeting, Hancock, along with George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...

 and the 7th U.S. Cavalry traveled west of Fort Larned to a combined Cheyenne and Lakota camp, inciting the villagers to flee. Hancock ordered the village burned, beginning a summer of warfare known as Hancock's War. Fort Larned assisted in bringing Hancock's War to an end by supplying the Medicine Lodge Treaty

Medicine Lodge Treaty

The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American...

.

With nine historic buildings, the fort survives as one of the best-preserved examples of Indian Wars

Indian Wars

American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...

-period forts. Most of the buildings, including the barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

, commissary

Commissary

A commissary is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.-Word history:...

, and officers quarters, are furnished to their original appearance.

Fort Larned National Historic Site is open daily, year-round. Admission is free. The park offers several special events throughout the year, living history demonstrations, and ranger-guided tours.

Units stationed at Fort Larned

The following units were stationed at Fort Larned during its nineteen years of operation:

1st U.S. Cavalry - 1859

2nd U.S. Infantry - 1859-1863

2nd U.S. Dragoons - 1860-1861

2nd Kansas Volunteer Cavalry - 1862

9th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry - 1862-1864

2nd Colorado Volunteer Cavalry - 1862-1865

9th Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery - 1862-1865

1st Colorado Volunteer Cavalry - 1862-1864

12th Kansas Volunteer Infantry - 1863

McLain’s Independent Colorado Volunteer Battery - 1864

15th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry - 1864-1865

3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry - 1864

11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry - 1864-1865

2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry - 1865-1866

48th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry - 1865

17th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry - 1865

2nd U.S. Cavalry - 1865-1866

13th U.S. Infantry - 1865

3rd U.S. Infantry - 1866-1872

37th U.S. Infantry - 1867

10th U.S. Cavalry - 1867-1869

6th U.S. Infantry - 1871-1872

5th U.S. Infantry - 1872-1874

19th U.S. Infantry - 1874-1878

External links

• National Park Service: Fort Larned National Historic Site
• Santa Fe Trail Research Site
• Extensive photos of Fort Larned