FORT LARNED

Fort Larned is a Kansas historical marker in Pawnee County.

Pawnee County · US-50N, six miles west of Larned · location approximate

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THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT KANSAS POST ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL. ESTABLISHED IN 1859 AND CALLED CAMP ALERT, IT WAS RENAMED IN HONOR OF COL. B. F. LARNED. SOLDIERS STATIONED HERE ESCORTED THE MAILS AND PATROLLED A REGION NOTORIOUS FOR INDIAN KILLINGS AND PLUNDERED WAGON TRAINS. THE FORT ITSELF WAS SEVERAL TIMES BESIEGED. GENERALS HANCOCK AND CUSTER STARTED FROM HERE IN 1867 ON THEIR UNSUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN TO SUBDUE THE CHEYENNES AND SIOUX. IN THE MIDDLE 1860'S THE POST WAS AN AGENCY FOR THE COMANCHES, KIOWAS AND APACHES. TROOPS WERE WITHDRAWN IN 1878, AND IN 1882 THE RESERVATION WAS ORDERED SOLD TO SETTLERS. SEVERAL OF THE STONE BUILDINGS ARE IN USE TODAY ON THE FORT LARNED RANCH. THERE IS A MARKER IN THE SMALL PARK ON THE OLD PARADE GROUND, ¼ MILE SOUTH OF THIS SIGN.

Verbatim 1941 text, presented as a historical record, not current interpretation. Kansas rewrote many of these signs in 2011-2012 and retired others, and the current texts use different language about Native people.

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: Kirke Mechem, "Kansas Historical Markers", Kansas Historical Quarterly, v. X no. 4 (November 1941), published by the Kansas State Historical Society

FORT LARNED

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