• Fort Parade Ground and Officers Quarters as seen from Guardhouse

    Fort Scott

    National Historic Site Kansas

For Teachers

Kids performing in a play during a special event.

NPS Photo

Children performing Bleeding Kansas play, one of many options available to school groups visiting the site.

Fort Scott National Historic Site invites you to step back in time to experience life at a frontier army post and to participate in the events of a town immersed in conflict!

Located in downtown Fort Scott, KS, the site consists of twenty historic structures, eleven of which are open to the public. The site also includes a parade ground and five acres of restored tallgrass prairie. There is a self-guided walk through the prairie. Thirty-three historically furnished rooms depict the fort as it might have looked in the 1840s. An audio-visual program and museum exhibits give a comprehensive view of the site’s history from 1842-73. Built to protect the Permanent Indian Frontier, the site also played a role in the opening of the West, Bleeding Kansas, and the Civil War.

We invite you to participate in one of our curriculum based education programs or one of our educational opportunities. This page contains links to information you can use to plan a field trip, download activity packets for use in your curriculum, or arrange for in class presenters.

  • Sweep Through History Sweep Through History

    Grades 5 & 6 Read More

  • Virtual Resource Center Virtual Resource Center

    Site for researchers and presenters-1840s garrison life. Read More

  • Life on the Frontier Life on the Frontier

    Grades K-4 Read More

  • Conflict on the Border Conflict on the Border

    Grades 7 & 8 Read More

Did You Know?

Reenactors portraying the First Kansas Colored at a Civil War Encampment at Fort Scott in April of 2003

Kansas was the first Union state to recruit, muster, train and send African American soldiers into combat during the Civil War. The First Kansas Colored Infantry mustered in at Fort Scott, Kansas on January 13, 1863. The unit compiled a proud combat record during the war.