Video
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Transcript
FORT LARNED WIND, THE SANTA FE TRAIL, & LIFE ON THE PLAINS
George Elmore Chief Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site Fort Larned was established in 1859 to protect the US mail routes that were going through the area. To the Plains Indians this is was their homeland. And General Hancock was here in 1867 and one of the Indian leaders told him he was extremely upset with the military and the trail travelers were cutting down all the trees and chasing away the buffalo. So it was a direct impact on the Indians that they did have. And the Indians were seeing things happen that they didn’t like and they were fighting back.
Chaz Beckwith Park Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site The primary reason for the army to be at this Fort is basically to protect the Santa Fe Trail from the Indians, because you know, the Indians, they weren’t going to attack the fort; they were fighting guerilla warfare style. So we were sent here to protect the Santa Fe Trail, protect wagons, protect any kinds of supplies or things going from here to Fort Dodge.
George Elmore Company A of the 10th United States Cavalry arrived at Fort Larned in 1867. The Buffalo Soldier units were just being organized post-Civil War. These were all black units that were white officers. Even then there were a lot of racial problems here at the fort. We have an account from one of the infantry officers who refused to allow his men to come out on the porch to watch the 10th Cavalry on parade, on the parade field, and they would have to muster for pay, and different times they’d have to do parades. And he said we don’t want to give him that respect, you stay inside the building. So the 10th Cav did serve here for about two years. We had an all-black cavalry for a period of time in an all-white infantry.
Here they initially made Fort Larned out of adobe and then they discovered that didn’t hold up well, just too much rain in this environment, so right at the end of the Civil War they decided to rebuild it of sandstone. That was all quarried about two miles straight east of us. It’s a natural, of course sedimentary rock, and there’s a lot of limestone and sandstone both in this area.
Pete Bethke Park Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site There is not a thing I can’t do in here if I get the metal to the right temperature. And the shop’s dark because it allows me to watch the color of the metal as I’m working on it. And that basically tells me what temperature the metal is. Blacksmiths here, even though they were primarily working for the army, they could do work for civilians once their orders were done for that day. Primarily it was wagon repair, wagon wheels, parts of the wagon that wore out and broke.
Ellen Jones Park Ranger, Fort Larned National Historic Site Back when the fort was a working fort, there were gardens, there were several. The soldiers that worked the gardens were very, very enthusiastic in the early months, but of course, they had problems they had to deal with like drought, hot winds, grasshoppers. I’m kind of proud of the fact that we went ahead and decided to plant a garden here; it’s the first one of the 21st century. It’s a local Girl Scout troop, Troop 72 is helping with this and we have several plants, vegetable plants, that would’ve been here when the soldiers lived here.
George Elmore The flagpoles at military posts like this were usually 100 feet high or more, and they flew extremely large Garrison flags that were 20 by 36 feet. So the trail travelers coming in, here at Fort Larned, from as far away as Pawnee Rock, and that’s almost 14 miles away, the trail travelers could start seeing the flag. It would have to be, I think, a tremendous feeling of security and safety.
This is nothing more than a giant classroom setting that’s outdoor. You’re in a natural environment with an historic prairie and the animals, and the cultural buildings, all put together to help people understand the 1860s and what it was like. To me you can go to school and you can sit down in a classroom and you can read about it in a book, but here you can actually come see it. And you can experience it, you can touch it, you can hear the sounds and the smells and the sights of the 1860s yet today.
Description
1859: The fort was built to protect Santa Fe travelers and supplies from Plains Indians. Yet the Indians were only protecting their homelands from the people who were cutting down forests and killing bison. What other environmental characteristics helped the soldiers to exist here?
Duration
6 minutes, 27 seconds
Credit
Donald J. O'Brien
Date Created
12/19/2011
Copyright and Usage Info