Fort Larned National Historic Site, National historic site and former military fort in Pawnee County, Kansas, United States
Fort Larned is a military post in Pawnee County featuring nine restored sandstone buildings arranged around a central parade ground. The grounds include residential quarters, storage buildings, workshops, and other structures that show the complete layout of a frontier military installation.
The post was established in 1859 and operated as a military base until 1878 along the Santa Fe trade route. Its presence protected traders and travelers while also serving as an administrative center for managing regional tribal relations.
Fort Larned served as an agency for administering Central Plains tribes under the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861. General Winfield Scott Hancock met Cheyenne chiefs here on April 12, 1867, before his troops burned a nearby village, starting Hancock's War. The post later supplied the Medicine Lodge Treaty that helped end that conflict.
The site lies about 5.5 miles west of Larned, Kansas, off U.S. Route 156. The sandstone buildings stand around a central parade ground, so you can walk from the visitor center to the barracks, officers' quarters and workshops on level ground. Allow time to read the furnished interiors and the flagpole area.
The fort is named after Colonel Benjamin F. Larned, an Army paymaster who never set foot on the site during his lifetime. Despite this lack of direct connection, his name became permanently associated with this important frontier installation.
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