About Fort Larned National Historic Site
Fort Larned began on October 22, 1859, as the Camp on Pawnee Fork, a small garrison posted to protect Santa Fe Trail traffic through central Kansas. It was renamed Camp Alert in early 1860, moved a short distance up the Pawnee Fork that May, and by the end of the month took the name of Colonel Benjamin F. Larned, then paymaster general of the Army. Besides escorting wagon trains and mail coaches, the post served as an Indian Bureau agency for the Central Plains tribes under the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 and supplied the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty council that ended Hancock's War. The fort closed in 1878, after the tribes had been moved to reservations and the railroads across Kansas had made the trail obsolete.
The original sod and adobe buildings were replaced in 1868 by sandstone structures arranged around a parade ground, and those nine buildings survive, making Fort Larned one of the best-preserved Indian Wars-era posts in the country. From 1885 to 1966 the fort was the headquarters of a private ranch, with the owners living in the commanding officer's quarters, which is why so much of it was never torn down. Fort Larned was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, authorized as a National Historic Site on August 31, 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The National Park Service site covers 718 acres about five and a half miles west of the town of Larned.
Most of the buildings, including the enlisted barracks, the commissary, and the officers' quarters, are furnished to their 1860s appearance. Living history programs feature blacksmithing, artillery firing, and reenactors portraying the soldiers who served here, including the Buffalo Soldiers. The History and Nature Trail leads through the fort's natural areas to the sites of structures that no longer stand.
Collections and Research Services
Fort Larned is a historic site rather than an archive, but it is a useful stop for anyone researching a soldier or civilian employee who passed through the post, a Santa Fe Trail freighting ancestor, or a Pawnee County homestead. The furnished buildings and the park's online virtual tour document daily life on the post in detail, the park bookstore, whose proceeds support the site, stocks regional histories and trail studies, and rangers can point researchers to the National Archives for military service and post returns. The park's education staff also run programs for school groups. For records on individuals, start with our guide to free family history research, and for locating a soldier's grave see how to find where someone is buried.
Planning Your Visit
The site is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time, seven days a week except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day, and bad weather can close it. Admission is free. A picnic area is available, and the free NPS app provides a self-guided tour of the buildings and grounds. The park phone, (620) 285-6911, is answered during business hours. Check alerts and the events calendar at nps.gov/fols before driving out, since living history events are scheduled on specific weekends. In Topeka, about three hours east, our directory also lists the Kansas Historical Society, whose State Archives hold the territorial and state records that complement a visit here, and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.
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