Presently a museum is housed in this infantry barracks. The lower level of the museum has exhibits on the Dragoons, War with Mexico, Westward Expansion, the Permanent Indian Frontier, and Fort Scott today. The second level contains exhibits on Bleeding Kansas (territorial days), the Civil War, archaeology, tools and techniques, reconstruction, and restoration.

After the army sold Fort Scott in 1855, the barracks became the pro-slavery Western Hotel. The building directly across the parade ground became the anti-slavery Free State Hotel. The two hotels symbolized the strife over slavery that divided Kansas in the late 1850's, an era known as "Bleeding Kansas."