October 8, 2022 @ 08:35 CST
Site Visit #58
Testing 123
Fort Larned exists for an entirely different reason than did Fort Scott, which I visited a few days ago. Fort Scott was constructed to guard the frontier between white settlements and the Indians. Fort Larned was built after that frontier was no longer valid and protected westward-bound travelers, particularly those on the Santa Fe Trail.
Like Fort Scott, Fort Larned has no exterior walls. Buildings form the outside of a square around a large parade ground. The Santa Fe Trail passes just outside of the Fort. Settlers traveling on the Santa Fe Trail would stop at Fort Larnerd, where they would wait until a sufficient number of like-minded travelers had assembled before setting out with an army escort to the southwest.
The Fort started as a temporary camp in 1859 guarding the construction of a mail station along the trail. Over the next several years, stone buildings were constructed, many of which have survived to this day. The Fort’s heyday was in the late 1860s and early 1870s, but by 1878 it had become nearly a ghost town. The railroad had arrived a few years earlier and the days of the wagon train were coming to an end.
The Fort Larned National Historic Site Visitor Center is located in one of the buildings that originally served as barracks for the soldiers. Inside, a short video plays on demand and describes the political climate around Fort Larned. Sadly, it was the time of broken treaties by both sides and unnecessary massacres by both sides. The visitor center also has a small section of displays about the soldiers’ lives, the fort in general, and again, the politics of the time.
After leaving the visitor center, I wandered around the various buildings of the fort. Most of them were open with different displays in each one, generally pertaining to the function of that building. Because most of the original buildings have survived and they’ve been restored to how they looked at the fort’s prime, one can get a feel for what life was like for the soldiers and officers that served at the fort.
Steve
