Come join volunteers and staff this holiday weekend at Fort Scott National Historic Site, located in Fort Scott, Kansas, as they offer traditional living history activities and demonstrations highlighting 1840s garrison life including black powder artillery programs.   Guided tours will be offered each day at 1 p.m.

 

Come Saturday, September 5, and visit with the post surgeon about the ailments and cures of the day. Take a stab assisting the post laundress washing soldiers’ clothes. Find out why Private Doubledee is serving his sentence in the guardhouse.   Fort Scott volunteer Ronda Anderson will present the program, “A Walk in the Prairie” at 3 p.m.   Using actual samples and slides, Ronda explores native wildflowers encountered by Officer’s Wives living at Fort Scott in the 1840s.  Living history programs will continue Sunday and Monday.

 

Heiro Wilson was a prominent person who served as Post Sutler in the early 1840s and became one of the town’s first citizens.  He witnessed Fort Scott evolve from the “Permanent Indian Frontier” to be the county seat of Bourbon County.  In the process, he also witnessed many turbulent eras including “Bleeding Kansas” and the Civil War.  Come Sunday at 3 p.m. to learn more about this important cog in Fort Scott’s history.

 

Land ownership and property disputes plagued the United States from its early beginning.  From 1842-1873, Fort Scott went through these issues with the rest of the country that helped define us as a nation in the mid-nineteenth century.  During a special Monday afternoon tour at 2:30 p.m., reenactors will create four different scenes in which soldiers or civilians at Fort Scott were involved in land disputes.

The schedule of activities is listed below:

 

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5   

10:00 a.m. –Post Laundress Talk

11:00 a.m. –Artillery Demo

  1:00 p.m. - Guided Tour

  2:00 p.m. – Artillery Demo

  3:00 p.m. – “A Walk in the Prairie”

  4:00 p.m. - Flag Retreat

 

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6

10:00 a.m. – Artillery Demo

11:00 a.m. – Guided Tour

  1:00 p.m. – Guided Tour

  2:00 p.m. – Artillery Demo

  3:00 p.m. – “Heiro Wilson: Fort Scott’s Enduring Resident”

  4:00 p.m. – Flag Retreat

 

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7      

10:00 a.m. – Crime and Punishment

11:00 a.m. – Artillery Demo

  1:00 p.m. - Guided Tour

  2:30 p.m. – Land and Property Disputes Guided Tour

  4:00 p.m. – Flag Retreat

  

Fort Scott National Historic Site is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  There is an entrance fee of $3.00 for each adult 16 and over.  Children 15 and under are admitted free of charge.  For more information call the site at 620-223-0310 or visit our web site at www.nps.gov/fosc.