Fort Scott

Fort Scott was built to replace Fort Wayne, which the Army gave up partly to placate the nearby Cherokee. The post quartermaster, Captain Thomas Swords, had two bricklayers and three carpenters to raise it, a sawmill a mile and a half away and a run of accidents that destroyed much of his timber. By 1844 only one of five planned officers' quarters stood. The fort never had walls; its buildings framed a 350-foot parade ground. Restoration began under an act of August 31, 1965, and the fort became a national historic site on October 19, 1978.

What the plaque says

Fort Scott This western outpost, named for General Winfield Scott, was established by U. S. Dragoons in 1842. The fort was located on the military road that marked the "permanent Indian frontier" stretching from Minnesota to Louisiana and stood about midway between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Gibson. By 1853 the Indian frontier had moved west and troops were withdrawn. Two years later the buildings were sold at auction and they became the town of Fort Scott. From 1855 to 1860 this area stood at the heart of the territorial struggle over slavery, and in 1858 the town was raided by Jayhawkers attempting to free one of their members from jail. One local resident was killed. With the onset of the Civil War, Fort Scott was reactivated to serve as the Union headquarters and supply depot for southeast Kansas. The town was threatened by Confederate guerillas from Missouri until 1865. After the war ended, the post was abandoned. In 1869 the army returned, headquartering troops in Fort Scott to protect railroad construction in southeast Kansas. In 1873 the post was abandoned. The restored fort is now a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service. Erected by Kansas State Historical Society & Kansas Department of Transportation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Scott National Historic Site — steps away
  An 1840s army post on the old Missouri border where officers kept enslaved servants, and where twenty years later the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was mustered onto the parade ground.
• Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site — 21 mi
  The Linn County ford where some 2,500 Union cavalrymen charged about 7,000 of Sterling Price's retreating Confederates in October 1864 and broke them against the creek.
• Miners Hall Museum — 22 mi
  Franklin's museum of the Crawford County coal camps and their immigrant families, and of the December 1921 morning the miners' wives marched to shut the mines.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Mine Creek — 21 mi
• The Legend of Greenbush — 27 mi
• Osage Catholic Mission — 34 mi