Fort Hartsuff, 1874-1881

The man the post was named for never saw it. George Lucas Hartsuff, born in Tyre, New York, in 1830 and a West Point graduate of 1852, was scouting near Fort Myers, Florida, in December 1855 when Seminoles attacked his party; a ball lodged in his chest and he hid in a lily pond. He survived the sinking of the Lady Elgin on Lake Michigan in 1860 and a hip wound at Antietam, retired disabled in 1871 and died of pneumonia in New York City on May 16, 1874. The autopsy found the inflammation around the old Seminole wound.

What the plaque says

Fort Hartsuff 1874-1881 The North Loup Valley provided a route for the Sioux raids upon the Pawnee. In 1872 white settlers moved into the valley. Sioux depredations at Sioux Creek in October 1873 and at Pebble Creek in January of 1874 prompted the settlers to request military protection. The fort, originally designated as "Post on the North Fork of the Loup River," was established on September 5, 1874. On December 9, 1874, the post was renamed in honor of Major General George L. Hartsuff. Fort Hartsuff became the center of the social life of the valley and, through disbursement of supplies, helped to offset the effects of the drought and grasshopper invasions of the early 1870's. The fort's major military engagement came at the Battle of the Blow Out in April of 1876. The action resulted in the death of First Sergeant Dougherty when troops commanded by Lieutenant Heyl routed a band of hostile Sioux. By 1881 the railroad was extended into the valley, an orderly civilian government had been established and the threat of hostilities was ended. Fort Hartsuff was abandoned on May 1, 1881. Today it is a State Historical Park. Valley County Historical Society Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park — steps away
  A small infantry post of 1874 in the North Loup valley, built of local lime concrete on the raiding road between Lakota and Pawnee country, and kept nearly whole by eighty years of farming.

More markers nearby

• Calamus Townsite — 0.6 mi
• St. Mary's Catholic Church — 3.6 mi
• Kamp Kaleo — 5.1 mi
• The Easter Blizzard of 1873 — 6.6 mi