Fort Larned National Historic Site: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fort Larned National Historic Site

Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Fort Larned National Historic Site (NHS) is located six miles west of Larned in west-central Kansas. The NHS includes two discontiguous units: a historic nineteenth-century military fort on the banks of the Pawnee River; and a 44-acre site six miles south of the fort that contains preserved ruts from a portion of the Santa Fe Trail, an important nineteenth-century transportation corridor. The core of the historic fort (approximately 22 acres) is defined by the quadrangle of nine military buildings arranged around the historic parade ground. Historically, the fort was a larger complex that included additional service and support structures, company gardens, and agricultural fields. The Fort Larned cultural landscape is significant for the role it played in westward expansion of America during the time period of its major military operations (1868 to 1878). The National Register nomination extends this period of significance to include 1860-1884, beginning with the fort’s construction and ending when it was decommissioned. As a military post on the eastern portion of the Santa Fe Trail, the fort was part of a system that influenced settlement, transportation, and commerce in the American Midwest. It was also strongly associated with the history of relations between the U.S. government and Native Americans, serving as an encampment site and connected to both conflicts and peacekeeping initiatives. The fort contains a collection of well-preserved sandstone buildings that exemplify distinctive characteristics of the 19th-century military frontier. Designed as a quadrangle around the central parade ground, it is the arrangement of these structures in a military landscape that lends the fort complex its significance in construction. The original adobe buildings were replaced by more substantial material, and the use of stone for the major buildings served as a symbol of the U.S. military strength in the region. Although the landscape has evolved, it retains many of its character-defining features through the organization of its structures in the surrounding landscape, the arrangement of buildings, the 37-star American flag as the central focal point of the parade ground, views, and representations of historic uses. The site’s historic military use provides the basis for its current interpretive use; for example, the open parade ground that was used for regular daily calls, drill, and ceremony can still be viewed today. The landscape continues to depict the important role that the fort played in western settlement and suggest an image of life at an isolated prairie outpost. Fort Larned’s significance extends beyond its walls in other ways, as well; it is related to the Santa Fe Trail as an important passage of trade, travel, and commerce, to the extension of U.S. government authority into unsettled territory, and to the lifestyle changes of Plains Indians caused by non-native cultures. The fort was authorized as a historic site in 1964 and acquired as a unit of the National Park System in 1966.

Fort Larned National Historic Site: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fort Larned National Historic Site

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