Fort Larned

Old Fort Larned is six miles west of Larned and is the finest preserved frontier cavalry fort in the National Park System. The troopers stationed there were to protect the Santa Fe Trail from marauding Plains Indian tribes. The Indian Wars that began in the spring of 1867 started just west of Fort Larned. Sometimes known as "Hancock's War," this war was the subject of a thorough award-winning book by the late Bill Chalafant. The Indian Wars culminated in Custer's disaster at Little Big Horn eight years later, but the eventual loss of the buffalo herds doomed the tribes to reservations.

Ft. Larned - U.S. National Park Service


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