Fort Hays State Historic Site

The post moved here, south of Hays and near the new railroad, on June 23, 1867, after a flood at its earlier site killed nine people, and less than three weeks later cholera arrived. The first case was recorded on July 11. There was no hospital yet, and soldiers and civilians lay in tents; in two months the disease killed 36 soldiers and about 150 civilians. Elizabeth Polly, wife of the hospital steward, nursed in the wards as matron and died of it herself. Her grave on Sentinel Hill was lost when its limestone posts were stolen, and Hays has told ghost stories about her since; the town put up a monument on the hill in 1967. The surgeon's monthly reports also record the smaller lives: a servant burned lighting a kitchen stove in 1881, a sergeant's daughters born and buried in the 1880s.

The army left on November 8, 1889. The reservation passed to the Interior Department and in 1900 to the state, and in 1902 the two officers' quarters were auctioned and moved into town while the other buildings went for scrap. When Frontier Historical Park opened in 1929 only the hexagonal stone blockhouse of 1867, built as post headquarters, and the 1872 guardhouse were left. The officers' quarters came back in 1964 and 1987, and the visitor center opened in 1967.

Today the visitor center shows Plains Indian clothing and toys, a beaded quiver, General Alexander Hays's saber and a dumbbell of Custer's, and metal silhouettes stand where lost buildings were. Admission is free.