Discover a complete and authentic army post from the 1860s -1870s! This well-preserved fort on the Santa Fe Trail shares a tumultuous history of the Indian Wars era. The sandstone constructed buildings sheltered troops who were known as the Guard...
Before the sturdy sandstone buildings were constructed after the Civil War many of the fort's structures were either adobe or sod, like those that occupied the space behind the current sandstone barracks.
The sandstone barracks at Fort Larned were completed in 1868. They replaced adobe barracks built before the Civil War.
Enlisted Barracks and Post Hospital 649 words The Enlisted Barracks and the Post Hospital are in the second of the two barracks building on the north side of the Parade Ground. It is a one-story sandstone block building facing the Parade Ground. The building is 172 feet long with an 11-foot-deep wood porch running the length of the building. The porch roof is an extension of the building roof and is supported by 18 white square wood columns, nine feet apart. The building has a gable roof covered with brown wood shingles. There are five brick chimneys and two white square wooden cupolas covering ventilation shafts across the ridge line at the top of the roof. From left to right are three chimneys, a ventilation cupola, a chimney, a ventilation cupola, and a chimney. The chimneys are between 30 and 40 feet apart across the top of the roof. The first ventilation cupola is between the third and fourth chimney, the second one is between the fourth and fifth chimney. The first and last chimney are two feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has 10 windows and three doors with both the window frames and the doors painted white. From the left as you face the building are: three windows, a double doorway, four windows, a double doorway, two windows, a single doorway, and one window. The windows are five feet tall by three feet wide. The double doorways are eight and a half feet tall by four and a half feet wide and are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The doors are six and a half feet tall by four feet wide. There is a row of five glass panes, one foot high by eight inches wide, above both sets of double doors. The glass panes are recessed one foot from the front of the doorway. The single doorway is eight and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide and is recessed one foot from the front of the building. The door is six and a half feet tall by three feet wide. There is a row of two glass panes, one foot tall by eight inches wide above the door. The glass panes are recessed one foot from the front of the doorway. The windows and doors are spaced eight to ten feet apart across the front of the building with the first and last windows six feet from their respective ends of the building. The porch is six inches above the ground. Wheelchairs can access the porch from the west end where an eleven-foot wide, 16-foot-long brown asphalt path, parallel to the main Parade Ground path, connects the porches of the two barracks buildings. The path slopes down gently to ground level from the east end of the Visitor Center porch, then gently back up to the west end of the Barracks/Hospital porch. The porch is level with the doorway, allowing for wheelchair access into the building. The two double doorways are open, the single doorway is closed and is not used as a public entrance. The first doorway on the left leads into the restored barracks area of the building, which is furnished to represent the enlisted men's quarters in an Indian Wars-era frontier fort. It has a squad room, first sergeant's room, mess hall and kitchen. The squad room, first sergeant's room and kitchen are not accessible to the public and are blocked by plexiglass barriers. The next doorway, near the center of the building, leads into the restored hospital area of the building, which is furnished to represent the fort's hospital. There are a surgeon's office and operating room, storage area and attendant's sleeping quarters, two hospital wards, and a kitchen and mess hall. Only the two hospital wards are accessible to the public, the other rooms are blocked by plexiglass barriers. End of description.
Home to the Guardians of the Santa Fe Trail. Discover a complete and authentic army post from the 1860s -1870s! This well-preserved fort on the Santa Fe Trail shares a tumultuous history of the Indian Wars era. The sandstone constructed buildings sheltered troops who were known as the Guardians of the Santa Fe Trail.
The sandstone officers' quarters at Fort Larned were considered some of the best accommodations of any army post on the plains.
North Officers’ Quarters 889 words The North Officers' Quarters is a one-story sandstone block building 84 feet long, facing the Parade Ground with eight windows and two doors in the front. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a single-entry doorway, four windows, a single-entry doorway, and two windows. The windows are six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the single doorways are eight and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The doors are seven and a half feet tall by three feet wide and recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The window frames and doors are painted white. At the top of each door is a row of four windowpanes, one foot tall by eight inches wide, recessed one foot from the front of the door. The windows have 17-inch-wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame the windows on each side. The windows and doors are five feet apart, with the first and last windows three feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are three brick chimneys spaced 38 feet apart with the first and last chimney about two feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has a 10-foot-deep wood porch running its entire length. The porch roof is separate from the building roof, extending out from just beneath the building's roof line. The roof is covered with wood shingles and is supported by 13 white square wood columns, just over seven feet apart. The porch is two feet above the ground and accessible by two eight-foot-wide sets of three steps without railings, one set on each side of the porch in front of the two doorways. There is a three-foot-high wooden railing around the porch with spindles three inches apart between the top and bottom rails. The railing and spindles are both painted white. A four-foot-wide, seven-foot-long wood walkway leads from the boardwalk in front of the house to the steps on both sides of the porch through a four-foot-wide opening in the railing. Inside are the restored officers' quarters with housing for one captain and two lieutenants on each side of the building. Each side has a six-foot-wide central hallway with two doorways on each side of the hall, and a door at the end of the hallway opposite the front door. All the interior doors are seven and half feet tall by three feet wide. The back door has a row of two glass panes, nine inches high and one foot wide, above the door. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The doors and doorframes are painted brown. Each door is two feet wide with an eight-inch frame around it. The doors are recessed 6 inches from the front of the interior wall. The doors are 11 feet apart and each door is five feet from their respective ends of the hallway. None of the interior rooms are open to the public and are blocked by plexiglass barriers. On both ends of the building a third room extends out 21 feet past the back door of the hallway with a seven-and-a-half-foot-wide wooden porch extending out to the end of the extension. The porch is approximately six inches above the ground. The porch roof is an extension of the building roof and is supported by four square wooden columns nine and a half feet apart. There is a brick chimney on the ridge line in the center of the extension’s roof. This extension has two windows and a door. From left to right as you face the porch are a window, the door, and another window. The windows are five feet high by three feet wide and the doorway is seven and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The door is six and a half feet high by three feet wide and is recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. There is a row of three glass panes above the window, eight inches high and ten inches wide. The glass panes are flush with the door. The door and window frames are painted white. The windows have 17-inch-wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame both sides of the windows. The door and windows are spaced approximately four and a half feet apart with the first window four and a half feet from the end of the extension and the second window four and a half feet from the back wall of the main building. This building is wheelchair accessible through the back doors. Follow the boardwalk around to the north side of the building until it meets a gravel and dirt path extending from the main path on the north side of the parade ground. This will lead you to a path behind Officers' Row, 160 feet from where the boardwalk meets the path to the back of Officers' Row. Once on the path behind Officers' Row there is a six-foot-wide opening in the back of the fence approximately 53 feet from the northwest corner of the fence. A six-and-a-half-foot wide gravel and dirt path leads from the fence to the back porch of the captain's quarters' extension. End of description.
Remote Army posts like Fort Larned had to be self-sufficient, especially when it came to repairing equipment, or making needed items. The shops building provided the space for those activities.
Shops Building 865 words The Shops Buildings is the first building on the left as you face the east side of the Parade Ground. It is a one-story sandstone block building, 84 feet long. The front of the building faces away from the Parade Ground and the back faces the Parade Ground. The building has a gable roof covered with brown wood shingles. There are three chimneys spaced unevenly across the ridge line at the top of the roof. The first and third chimney are both two feet from their perspective ends of the building; the middle chimney is about eight feet to the left of the center of the roof. Since this building faces away from the parade the back of the building is presented first as you approach it. The back of the building has eight windows, six feet tall by three feet wide with white painted window frames. The windows are spaced between seven and nine feet apart across the back of the building with the first and last windows seven feet from their respective ends of the building. In the front of the Shops Building, the roof extends 10 feet out in front of the building and is supported by 10 white, square wood columns, nine feet apart. The ground in front of the building is dirt. The front of the building has three windows and four doors, with both the window frames and the doors painted white. From the left as you face the building are: a window, a double doorway, a window, another double doorway, a single doorway, a window, and another single doorway. The windows are four feet tall by three feet wide. The double doors are six and a half feet tall by eight feet wide, and the single doors are six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The doors are all recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. Both the doors and the window frames are painted white. The doors and windows are unevenly spaced across the front of the building with the single doorway on the right almost 14 feet from the end of the building and the window on the left just five feet from the end of the building. There is also a chimney on the front, sloping part of the roof that is three feet from the left end of the building, 10 feet from the ridge line at the top of the roof and 13 feet from the lower edge of the roof. All the doors are level with the ground, allowing for wheelchair access into the building. The single doorway on the right end of the building is open, the next single doorway is closed and is not used as a public entrance. The double doorways in the middle and on the left end are both open. The first single door on the right leads into the restored bakery, which is furnished as a bakery for an 1860s army post. It has a bake oven, storage room for the baked bread, a bedroom for the baker, and a work area for preparing the dough. The double doorway in the middle leads into the restored saddler, carpenter and wheelwright workshop, which is furnished as a multi-use work room with work benches and tools. There is also a restored 1870's army ambulance to the left as you enter the building. The ambulance is painted yellow and has a small Red Cross symbol in the middle of the side facing the entry area. The back/workroom area is not accessible to the public and is blocked by three-foot-high wooden barrier eight feet from the door. The barrier extends out 10 feet from the north wall where it turns towards the east wall, extending back just over four feet until it meets the end of the open left door, which forms the remaining barrier on the south side. The end of the door is locked to the end of the barrier with a latch and padlock. A five-foot high plexiglass barrier is mounted on top of both sides of the barrier. The double doorway on the left end of the building leads into the restored blacksmith shop, which is furnished as an 1860's post blacksmith shop. It has two forges on the south side, and various blacksmith tools in the rest of the shop. The back/workroom area of the room is not accessible to the public and is blocked by a four-and-a-half-foot high U-shaped wooden barrier, painted black. Both the left and right sides of the barrier start four feet from the east wall on either side of the doorway, extending into the building until they intersect with another section, just under seven feet from the doorway. The space between the doorway and the start of the barrier on both sides is blocked by the open doors. The ends of the doors are locked to the ends of the barrier by a latch and padlock. The left side of the barrier has a five and a half foot tall, three-foot-wide plexiglass barrier framed by wood extending from the top. End of description.
The sandstone officers' quarters at Fort Larned were considered some of the best accommodations of any army post on the plains.
South Officers' Quarters 834 words The South Officers' Quarters is a one-story sandstone block building 84 feet long, facing the Parade Ground. It has eight windows and two doors in the front. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a single entry doorway, four windows, a single entry doorway, and two windows. The windows are six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the single doorways are eight and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The doors are seven and a half feet tall by three feet wide. The window frames and doors are painted white. The doors are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. At the top of each door is a row of four window panes, one foot tall by eight inches wide. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The windows have 17 inch wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame the windows on each side. The windows and doors are spaced five feet apart, with the first and last windows three feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are three brick chimneys spaced 38 feet apart with the first and last chimney about two feet from their respective ends of the their buildings. The building has a 10 foot deep wood porch running its entire length. The porch has a low, sloped hip roof, separate from the building roof and extending out from just beneath the building's roof line. The roof is covered with wood shingles and is supported by 13 white square wood columns, just over seven feet apart. The porch is two feet above the ground and accessible by two eight foot wide sets of three steps without railings, one set on each side of the porch in front of the two doorways. There is a three foot high wooden railing around the porch with spindles three inches apart between the top and bottom rails. The railing and spindles are both painted white. A four foot wide, seven foot long wood walkway leads from the boardwalk in front of the house to the steps on both sides of the porch through a four foot wide opening in the railing. Inside are the restored officers' quarters with housing for one captain and two lieutenants on each side of the building. Each side has a six foot wide central hallway with two doorways on each side of the hall, and a door at the end of the hallway opposite the front door. All the interior doors are seven and half feet tall by three feet wide. The back door has a row of two glass panes, nine inches high and one foot wide, above the door. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The doors and doorframes are painted brown. Each door is two feet wide with an eight inch frame around it. The doors are recessed 6 inches from the front of the interior wall. The doors are 11 feet apart and each door is five feet from their respective ends of the hallway. None of the interior rooms are open to the public and are blocked by plexiglass barriers. On both ends of the building a third room extends out 21 feet past the back door of the hallway with a seven and a half foot wide wooden porch extending out to the end of the extension. The porch is approximately six inches above the ground. The porch roof is an extension of the building roof and is supported by four square wooden columns nine and a half feet apart. There is a brick chimney on the ridge line in the center of the extension’s roof. This extension has two windows and a door. From left to right as you face the porch are a window, the door, and another window. The windows are five feet high by three feet wide and the doorway is seven and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The door is six and a half feet high by three feet wide and is recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. There is a row of three glass panes above the window, eight inches high and ten inches wide. The glass panes are flush with the door. The door and window frames are painted white. The windows have 17 inch wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame both sides of the windows. The door and windows are spaced approximately four and a half feet apart with the first window four and a half feet from the end of the extension and the second window four and a half feet from the back wall of the main building. There is no wheelchair ramp so the building is not wheelchair accessible. End of description.
Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area shares the stories of 19th century Americans living in Kansas and Missouri who struggled to define the meaning of freedom during the Bleeding Kansas and Civil War years and how these historic struggles have shaped our nation’s concept of American democracy today as freedom for all continues to evolve.
The more troops at the fort, the more food supplies were needed. This second commissary was built to accommodate additional troops at Fort Larned.
New Commissary & Post School 383 words The New Commissary and Post School is the second building as you face the east side of the Parade Ground. It is a one-story sandstone block building, 80 feet long, facing the Parade Ground. The building has three windows and two single doorways, with both the window frames and doors painted white. From the left as you face the building are: a single doorway, three windows, and single doorway. The first doorway is two feet above the ground and is at the top of three four-foot-wide stairs without a railing. The bottom step is the extended end of a four-by-four-foot square platform five inches off the ground that the other steps are mounted on. The second doorway is three feet above the ground at the top of four four-foot-wide steps. The bottom step is the extension of a four by four foot square wooden platform five inches off the ground that the other steps are mounted on. The doors are six and a half feet tall by four and a half feet wide and are both recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The two doors are about eight feet from their respective ends of the building. The windows in between the doors are approximately 16 feet apart with the first window on the left about four feet from the door, and the last window on the right about six feet from the door. The building has a gable roof covered with wood tiles. There are two brick chimneys and a ventilation cupola across the ridge line at the top of the roof. From the left to right are: a chimney, a ventilation cupola, and a chimney. The first chimney is about two feet from the left side of the building, the second chimney is 18 feet from the right side of the building; the cupola is in the middle of the building. The only part of the building open to the public is the room on the left side, accessed by the steps to the single door. It has been restored as the post schoolhouse and is furnished with tables for students, a desk for the teacher, a chalkboard and bookcases. There are no ramps available for wheelchair access to this building. End of description.
Having a place to store food for the soldiers was essential for an army post. This commissary warehouse was the first sandstone building completed after the Civil War.
Old Commissary & Arsenal 511 words The Old Commissary is the first building on the left as you face the south side of the Parade Ground. It's a one-story sandstone block building, 154 feet long, facing the Parade Ground. It has 12 windows and three doorways, with both window frames and doors painted white. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a double doorway, four windows, a double doorway, four windows, a double doorway, and two windows. The windows are seven feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the doors are six and a half feet tall by four and a half feet wide. All the doors are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The windows extend from just below the roof line to just above the bottom of the building. The windows and doors are spaced six feet apart across the front of the building with the first and last window about six feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are two brick chimneys and three square white wooden ventilation cupolas across the top ridge line of the roof. From left to right are: a ventilation cupola, a chimney, a ventilation cupola, a chimney, and a ventilation cupola. The chimneys and the cupolas are spaced approximately 21 feet apart with the first and last cupola 23 feet from their respective ends of the building. All the doors are level with the ground and are wheelchair accessible. The first set of double doors on the left are closed and this section of the building is not open to the public. The second and third set of double doors are open. Inside the second doorway is the restored Commissary area, which is furnished with barrels and shelves of reproduction food items behind a three and a half foot tall, two-foot-deep L-shaped wooden counter to the front and right of door as you enter. The counter is 12 feet from the door and just over 11 feet from the wall on your left as you enter. To the left of the entryway is an office with the doorway blocked by a plexiglass barrier. Inside the third doorway is the restored arsenal area, furnished to look like an army arsenal. There are two reproduction Mountain Howitzer artillery pieces in the back left area of the room. On the right are boxes of ammunition for rifles stacked on the floor, as if being stored there for use by the soldiers when needed. There is a 14-foot-wide wooden addition on the east end of the building. It has a sloping shed-style roof covered in wooden shingles. The roof slopes from a height of sixteen feet where it's level with the stone building's roof line down to a height of nine feet on the east side of the addition. It has one door, six feet tall by three feet wide, a little to the right of center in the front. This addition is not open to the public. End of description.
The post commander was the only officer who got an entire house for himself and his family.
Post Commander's Quarters 562 words The Post Commander's Quarters is a one-and-a-half-story sandstone block house 51 feet wide, facing the Parade Ground. It has four windows and one door in the front. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a single-entry doorway, and two windows. The windows are six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the single doorway is ten and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The door is seven and a half feet tall by three feet wide. The door is recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. There are four narrow windowpanes, six inches tall by two inches wide, on each side of the door and a row of five windowpanes, two feet tall by five inches wide above the door. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The windows have 17-inch-wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame the windows on each side. The window frames, windowpanes, and door are all painted white. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are two square brick chimneys on the ridge line at the top of the roof on either end of the building. Both chimneys are two feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has an 18 by 10-foot porch centered in the front of the building. The porch has a low, sloped hip roof, separate from the building roof and extending out from just beneath the building's roof line. The roof is covered with wood shingles and is supported by six white square wood columns, seven feet apart. The porch is two feet above the ground and accessible by an eight-foot-wide set of three steps without railings in the center of the porch. There is a three-foot-high wooden railing around the porch with spindles three inches apart between the top and bottom rail. The top and bottom rails are painted white, the spindles are painted green to match the shutters. A four-foot-wide, seven-foot-long walkway leads from the boardwalk in front of the house to the steps from a four-foot-wide opening in the white railing in the front. The half story is on the left side of the building, which is 54 feet long, with four windows on the ground level and two windows on an upper half-story level. The ground level windows are six feet tall by three and a half feet wide; the upper story windows are four and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The window frames and windowpanes are painted white; none of these windows have shutters. Facing the left side of the building, from right to left, the first lower story window is 21 feet from front of the building, the other three windows are approximately 5 feet apart with the last window four feet from the back of the building. The two upper story windows are four and a half feet directly above the last two lower story windows. There is a third chimney at the back of the house, two feet from the back edge of the roof on the left side of the building. This building is not open to the public because the interior has not been restored to its historic appearance. The opening through the railing is roped off. End of description.
The second sandstone building completed after the Civil War. The Quartermaster Department dealt with all supplies except food and ammunition. .
Quartermaster Warehouse 624 words The Quartermaster Warehouse is a one-story sandstone block building 158 feet long, facing the Parade Ground. It has six windows and two doorways, with both window frames and doors painted white. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a double doorway, three windows, a single doorway, and one window. The windows are five and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the double doorway is six and a half feet tall by five and half feet wide, and the single doorway is six and a half feet tall by three and half feet wide. Both doors are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The first window is approximately 18 feet from the left end of the building, the next window, double doorway and three windows beyond that are approximately 18 feet apart. The fifth window, single door and sixth window are approximately seven and a half feet apart. The sixth window is seven and half feet from the right end of the building. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are three square wood ventilation cupolas, painted white, and one brick chimney across the ridge line at the top of the roof. From left to right are the three cupolas and then the brick chimney. The cupolas are about 30 feet apart and the chimney is 25 feet from the third cupola. Both the chimney and the first cupola are 25 feet from their respective ends of the building. The one double doorway in the front of the building is at ground level and is wheelchair accessible. The doorway leads into the warehouse portion of the building, which takes up the east three quarters of the building. The warehouse is partially stocked with reproduction boxes, barrels and other items that might be used on a frontier fort. They are not in display cases but set out as if you are entering a real warehouse. The issue room is in the west quarter of the building, accessible by a single doorway on the west side of the building. To get to the Issue Room doorway, turn left at the west end of the building and proceed down a five-foot wide, 22-foot-long wooden walkway to a single doorway. The doorway is level with the walkway and is wheelchair accessible. This end of the building is 40 feet wide with two windows and the single doorway, with both the window frames and door painted white. The two windows are on either side of the doorway. The windows are five and a half feet tall by three feet wide, the door is six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The door is recessed a foot from the front of the exterior wall. The windows and door are spaced approximately seven and half feet apart with the windows seven and a half feet from their respective ends of the building. Inside is the restored issue room with a three-and-a-half-foot high counter, two and a half feet deep. The counter is 22 feet long and spans the width of the room; it's eight and a half feet from the door. There are two windows on the south wall, five feet high by three feet wide. One is on the west side of the counter, the other is on the east side of the counter. There are shelves on the three walls behind the counter with items that would have been issued to Army personnel. A doorway on the back wall, opposite the entrance doorway leads into the warehouse. On the left, just past the counter is a doorway to an office. End of description.
The Santa Fe Trail Center features history and artifacts from the Santa Fe Trail, as well as local history beginning with American Indians up through the present day.
The sandstone officers' quarters at Fort Larned were considered some of the best accommodations of any army post on the plains.
South Officers' Quarters 803 words The South Officers' Quarters is a one-story sandstone block building 84 feet long, facing the Parade Ground. It has eight windows and two doors in the front. From the left as you face the building are: two windows, a single-entry doorway, four windows, a single-entry doorway, and two windows. The windows are six and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide, the single doorways are eight and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The doors are seven and a half feet tall by three feet wide. The window frames and doors are painted white. The doors are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. At the top of each door is a row of four windowpanes, one foot tall by eight inches wide. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The windows have 17-inch-wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame the windows on each side. The windows and doors are spaced five feet apart, with the first and last windows three feet from their respective ends of the building. The building has a gable roof covered with wood shingles. There are three brick chimneys spaced 38 feet apart with the first and last chimney about two feet from their respective ends of their buildings. The building has a 10-foot-deep wood porch running its entire length. The porch has a low, sloped hip roof, separate from the building roof and extending out from just beneath the building's roof line. The roof is covered with wood shingles and is supported by 13 white square wood columns, just over seven feet apart. The porch is two feet above the ground and accessible by two eight-foot-wide sets of three steps without railings, one set on each side of the porch in front of the two doorways. There is a three-foot-high wooden railing around the porch with spindles three inches apart between the top and bottom rails. The railing and spindles are both painted white. A four-foot-wide, seven-foot-long wood walkway leads from the boardwalk in front of the house to the steps on both sides of the porch through a four-foot-wide opening in the railing. Inside are the restored officers' quarters with housing for one captain and two lieutenants on each side of the building. Each side has a six-foot-wide central hallway with two doorways on each side of the hall, and a door at the end of the hallway opposite the front door. All the interior doors are seven and half feet tall by three feet wide. The back door has a row of two glass panes, nine inches high and one foot wide, above the door. The glass panes are flush with the front of the door. The doors and doorframes are painted brown. Each door is two feet wide with an eight-inch frame around it. The doors are recessed 6 inches from the front of the interior wall. The doors are 11 feet apart and each door is five feet from their respective ends of the hallway. None of the interior rooms are open to the public and are blocked by plexiglass barriers. On both ends of the building a third room extends out 21 feet past the back door of the hallway with a seven-and-a-half-foot wide wooden porch extending out to the end of the extension. The porch is approximately six inches above the ground. The porch roof is an extension of the building roof and is supported by four square wooden columns nine and a half feet apart. There is a brick chimney on the ridge line in the center of the extension’s roof. This extension has two windows and a door. From left to right as you face the porch are a window, the door, and another window. The windows are five feet high by three feet wide and the doorway is seven and a half feet tall by three and a half feet wide. The door is six and a half feet high by three feet wide and is recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. There is a row of three glass panes above the window, eight inches high and ten inches wide. The glass panes are flush with the door. The door and window frames are painted white. The windows have 17-inch-wide green slatted shutters. The shutters are open and frame both sides of the windows. The door and windows are spaced approximately four and a half feet apart with the first window four and a half feet from the end of the extension and the second window four and a half feet from the back wall of the main building. There is no wheelchair ramp, so the building is not wheelchair accessible. End of description.
With no wall around the fort, the blockhouse provided a defensive location in case of Indian attack.
Blockhouse 433 words The Blockhouse is located outside the northeast corner of the Parade Ground at the end of a seven-foot wide, 94-foot-long pathway extending out from the path on the south side of the parade ground. Approximately 50 feet before the building, the path curves slightly to the right, ending at the doorway. The Blockhouse is a one-story, six-sided sandstone block building. Each side of the building is 21 feet long. It has no windows, just a double row of loopholes, or rifle slits, on all six sides. The first row of loopholes is three and a half feet from the ground, the second row of loopholes is six feet above the first row. The loopholes are seven inches tall by five inches wide on the outside, and one foot tall by 10 inches wide on the inside. They are 18 inches long from the outside of the wall to the inside. The building has a low-sloping conical roof covered with wood shingles. There is a seven-foot-tall wooden sentry box, painted white, extending up from the center of the roof. Each side of the sentry box is approximately 5 feet. The building has one double doorway, five feet wide by six and a half feet tall located in the center of the wall facing the path. The doors are painted white and are recessed one foot from the front of the exterior wall. The doorway is level with the ground and is wheelchair accessible. The building has a dirt floor that slopes down slightly towards the middle where a wood support pole, three and a half feet in circumference extends from the floor to the roof. The building was originally constructed for defensive purposes but was later used as the post's guardhouse and jail. The inside of the building has been restored to reflect both of those uses. There is a wooden platform extending three feet out from the wall seven and a half feet from the floor to allow soldiers access to the top row of loopholes. The platform extends from the left side of the doorway all the way around the interior wall to the right side of the doorway. It's supported by four and a half foot long two-by-fours angling out from the wall about three and a half feet below the platform and up to its outer edge. The support boards are spaced approximately seven and a half feet apart all the way around. There are also two reproduction iron ball and chains lying on the floor to reflect the building's eventual use as the post jail. End of description.
Every frontier fort had a parade ground for drilling soldiers and holding traditional Army ceremonies such as troop reviews and Flag Retreat.
The Fort Larned Parade Ground 222 words The Parade Ground is a square open grassy area just over four acres in size. A 14-foot-wide gravel and dirt walkway runs around the perimeter. The Parade Ground is divided into four equal sections by two six-foot-wide dirt pathways. One pathway crosses in the center from north to south, the other crosses perpendicularly from east to west; they intersect in the middle. A 99-foot-tall flagpole resembling a ship's mast stands in the middle of a circular dirt area, 31 feet in diameter, 48 feet west of where the two interior paths intersect. A 25 foot long, six-foot-wide path leads from the point where the two interior paths intersect to the outside edge of the circular dirt area surrounding the flagpole. There is a Mountain Howitzer artillery piece sitting on a wooden platform on the inside of the northwest corner of the intersecting interior paths. The historic sandstone block buildings sit on all four sides of the Parade Ground. On the north side are the two enlisted barracks, on the east side are the shops building and new commissary, on the south side are the old commissary and the quartermaster warehouse, and on the west side are the two junior officers' quarters on each end with the post commander's quarters in the middle. End of description.
Located in one of the two historic barracks buildings, the park's Visitor Center features a bookstore with a wide variety of books on Army life, the Plains Indians and the Santa Fe Trail. Exhibits in the museum tell the stories of the westward expansion of the United States government, international commerce, and conflicts affecting the American Indians, traders, soldiers, and Indian agents in and around Fort Larned.
Fort Larned staff and volunteers help bring the fort to life during the summer with our living history programs.
Visit the Fort Larned Blacksmith
See a blacksmith practice his art in the Fort Larned blacksmith shop.
Picnic at Fort Larned
Pack a picnic lunch and make a day of your visit to Fort Larned!
Hike the Fort Larned History & Nature Trail
There was more to Fort Larned than the sandstone buildings left standing today. Beyond the Parade Ground was a complex of stables and corrals, along with the mail station that brought the Army here. The History & Nature trail explores the part of Fort Larned no longer here.
Tour Fort Larned with a Ranger
The best way to see the fort. Check on availability when you arrive.
Tour Fort Larned's Original Sandstone Buildings
See the original, restored sandstone buildings of a 19th century Indian Wars era fort.
Fort Larned Visitor Center
The Fort Larned Visitor Center is open daily from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
See Santa Fe Trail Ruts
See the evidence of the passage of hundreds of wagons over the Santa Fe Trail. Tracks like these are the only reminders of a once important trade route through the Southwest.
Tours
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Historic Sandstone Buildings
Fort Larned is one of the most complete Indian Wars Era forts along the Santa Fe Trail. The nine original (and one restored) sandstone block buildings represent a perfect opportunity to see what Army life was like in the mid-1800's.
History & Nature Trail
This History & Nature Trail is a 3/4 mile loop, half on a mowed path, and half on gravel road. The path explores the prairie landscape that surrounded the fort, as well as buildings and areas of fort operation no longer standing. There is no significant elevation change along the trail. The entire trail may be completed at a leisurely pace in about half an hour. The trail begins on the mowed path between the Hospital and Shops building. Look for marker #1 to begin the trail.
