12 June 2025, Fort Larned National Historic Site

- May 12, 2026

We spent the day at Fort Larned National Historic Site. It’s only about 3 miles from the Santa Fe Trail Center, where we are staying. This place is superb. Please visit if you are ever in the area.

The fort is part of the Santa Fe Trail, which began in 1821. We went to the visitor center first to get my passport books stamped. We watched the movie, which was both informative and engaging. The fort was built as part of the Santa Fe Trail but was later abandoned. It was purchased by the Frizell family and used as a ranch, but was then abandoned again. The U.S. National Park Service bought it, and it is now a National Historic Site. Most of the buildings have been restored and are in excellent condition. The displays in each building are amazing and give you a great sense of what it was like to live at the fort in the 1800s. The buildings have names carved into their sides from people who worked and lived at the fort throughout its storied history. The park service has memorialized the soldiers' carvings. We stood there and read quite a few of the names.

We spent our time reading all the plaques for each building. Each building is staged for its original purpose. We also walked over to the cemetery. All the remains of soldiers have been reinterred at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, Section B, where they have been identified. There are still unknown civilians buried here, but not identified.

The fort is a great place to visit. The museum is well done and informative. From here, we went into town and ate a late lunch at Edward’s Street Brew and Bites. They haven’t been brewing since COVID-19...Interesting. We were told it would be too expensive to bring in the taps. They had Okra as a side, so of course I ordered some. YUMMY!!!! My chicken wings were OK, but Barry’s pulled pork sandwich was superb. They smoke the pork there.

Yummy Fried Okra. I was a happy person.

Once back at the RV, we finished walking through the outside buildings of the Santa Fe Trail Center Museum, which we didn’t get to yesterday. There was a building with farm equipment and automobile displays. The farm equipment museum was great. It had numerous tractors in excellent condition. The automobile museum had only a few displays, but it was still enjoyable.

We also went through the old buildings that were moved from other locations to the museum, which we didn’t get to see the inside of yesterday, including a schoolhouse and a church. The museum has done an excellent job of preserving its history and displays. I would recommend visiting this museum and fort if you are in the area. Well worth the history lessons.