Fort Scott National Historic Site, in Fort Scott, Kansas, is a restored frontier fort that commemorates 31 years of United States history, from 1842 to 1873. Those years were a time of rapid westward expansion, and they also cover the American Civil War (1861-1865). The fort was named for Winfield Scott, who was general in chief of the U.S. Army during the 1840’s.
Responding to pressure from white settlers, the U.S. government passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act called for the removal of the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River and their relocation on land west of that river. The government created the Permanent Indian Frontier, an invisible boundary line around Indian territory, to separate and protect the tribes from white settlement. In 1842, the U.S. Army built Fort Scott to help maintain the Permanent Indian Frontier. The Army abandoned the fort in 1853. By that time, many of the people streaming westward had settled on the land set aside for the Indians, and the government had moved the frontier farther west.
In 1855, local settlers purchased the fort’s buildings at a government auction. However, the Army returned to Fort Scott periodically during the 1850’s to restore order between proslavery and antislavery groups in the area.
During the American Civil War, the Army established a major military complex at Fort Scott, including a supply base, a training ground, an army hospital, and a military prison. The fort served as a shelter for refugees from the war and as a center for planning and carrying out troop movements in Arkansas, the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), Kansas, and Missouri. The first African American troops from a northern state joined the Union Army at Fort Scott in 1863.
The Army last occupied Fort Scott from 1869 to 1873. Soldiers returned to the fort to protect the construction of a railroad that was opposed by local farmers and settlers.
Fort Scott became a national historic site in 1978. It includes 20 historic structures that have been restored to look as they did during the 1840’s. Eleven buildings with historic furnishings are open to the public. Three museum areas feature exhibits on the fort’s history, the soldiers stationed at Fort Scott, and the fort’s construction. A parade ground and 5 acres (2 hectares) of restored tallgrass prairie are also at the site.
