Places: Fort Larned, Kansas
An early outpost on the frontier that served as a staging area for campaigns against the various tribes, a focal point for peace parleys and a base for several famous military units, including the 10th U.S. Cavalry, many buildings of this military post have been preserved for posterity. Fort Larned, in what is now Pawnee County, Kansas, began as an army camp, the Camp on Pawnee Fork, a junction of the Pawnee and Arkansas Rivers, to guard travelers along the Santa Fe Trail. It saw so much activity with local tribes that in 1860, it was renamed Camp Alert, which with a post of about 50 soldiers, it had to be. The post was later moved upstream on the Pawnee River and renamed Fort Larned, honoring Benjamin F. Larned, a U.S. Army Paymaster who served there in the Army 1854-1862, but never at the post named in his honor. The first buildings on the site were constructed of adobe, including an officer's quarters, storehouse, barracks, guardhouse, laundres...