Book Three in the Series of Eight

This book relates the story of the military post, founded in 1860, that protected the travelers along the trail. Author Leo Oliva details the events of the fort's history and artist Jerry Thomas creates original cover art. A key military post for nineteen years, the fort is associated with a number of well-known military leaders including General George A. Custer and General Winfield Scott Hancock.

The opening of the Santa Fe Trail trade in 1821, the beginning of large-scale white emigration to the Oregon country in the early 1840s, the annexation of Texas in 1845, the settlement of the Oregon question in 1846, the acquisition of the American Southwest in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War, and increasing conflicts with the Indians between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains prompted a radical revision of western military and Indian policy in the mid-1840s. Militarily the new policy focused on control of Indians, while Indian policy shifted from the one-reservation "Indian country" theory to one of more limited, concentrated reservations. In this, Fort Larned--established as Camp on Pawnee Fort in 1859 and then Camp Alert prior to its permanent designation in honor of Colonel Benjamin F. Larned in 1860--played an extremely important role.

Located on the Santa Fe Trail near the confluence of Pawnee Creek and the Arkansas River, Fort Larned provided protection for trail commerce and the United States Postal Service; during the 1860s it served as headquarters and principal annuity distribution point for the Upper Arkansas (Cheyennes and Arapahos), and Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indian Agencies. It also provided military protection for federal land surveys, railroad construction crews, and Indian treaty delegations, and by the late 1860s had emerged as a major federal commissary for supplying the increasing number of Indian agencies in Indian Territory south of Kansas. It is generally recognized that Fort Larned was the most important federal military installation in western Kansas and that, in the Indian wars of the south-central Plains prior to the Medicine Lodge treaties of 1867, it was exceeded in importance only by Forts Leavenworth and Riley, both of which are located east of the ninety-eighth meridian.

Oliva, a Woodston resident, is a historian specializing in Kansas and the American West. He has published numerous books and articles on the military and the trails. Thomas, a Manhattan resident, created cover artwork for each of the books in the forts series. He is a full-time artist who has received numerous national awards for his wildlife and historical paintings.

This series has been financed in part with federal funds from the National Parks Service, a division of the United States Department of the Interior, and administered by the Kansas Historical Society. The contents and opinions, however, do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of the Interior or the Kansas Historical Society.