This is a first for us on our visits to National Park sites: directions to the visitor center. Yes, we did find it.
Travelers along the Santa Fe Trail looked to Fort Larned in Kansas, Fort Lyon in Colorado, and Fort Union in New Mexico for law enforcement and protection. These three forts presided over each major fork of the Santa Fe Trail, and supplied troops that patrolled hundreds of miles of the route. These frontier forts and their soldiers became the only force of law on these trails. The forts were the main source of the US government’s authority on the frontier.
Fort Larned is one of the best preserved forts from the 1860’s.
They played a movie through this “window”. I have not seen this done before and thought it was a creative idea.
The blockhouse was the first stone structure at Fort Larned. The blockhouse was built in the of winter 1864-65 to strengthen the fort’s defenses after a Kiowa raid in June of 1864. The Kiowas were able to steal 172 of the fort’s horses and mules.
REMEMBER HISTORY, STEVE