Fort Scott National Historic Site


Promises made and broken! Who deserves to be free? The fight for freedom! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from 1842-1873. All of the site's structures, its parade ground, and its tallgrass prairie bear witness to this era when the country was forged from a young republic into a united transcontinental nation.

Fort Scott National Historic Site is located in downtown Fort Scott, Kansas. U.S. Highways 69 and 54 intersect here. Fort Scott is about 90 miles south of Kansas City and 60 miles northwest of Joplin, Missouri. It is 4 miles from the Kansas-Missouri border. Signs directing visitors to Fort Scott are posted on highway 69 for visitors coming from the north and the south and on highway 54 for visitors coming from the east and the west.

  • Guided Tours
  • Living History
  • Historic Weapons Demonstration
  • Junior Ranger Program
  • Park Film
  • Museum Exhibits
  • Shopping
  • Bookstore and Park Store

  • African American Heritage
  • Forts
  • Incarceration
  • Jails and Prisons
  • Medicine
  • Hospital
  • Military
  • Infantry and Militia
  • Artillery
  • Cavalry
  • Indigenous and Native Warrior
  • Native American Heritage
  • Schools and Education
  • Transportation
  • Trains and Railroads
  • Wars and Conflicts
  • Mexican War
  • Civil War
  • Westward Expansion
  • Women's History
  • Grasslands
  • Prairies

Sunflowers at Fort Scott

A field of sunflowers next to a stone building. Wood frame structures in background.

A field of sunflowers adds a splash of color to a view of the parade ground at Fort Scott.

Post Hospital

Picture of the post hospital with the parade ground and trees in the background.

Picture of the Post Hospital

Officers Quarters at Sunset

Wood frame structures with stairs next to a stone walkway. Structures reflect afternoon sunlight.

Officers quarters at Fort Scott bathed in the light of the afternoon sun.

Dragoons on the Prairie

Four soldiers on horseback in a line riding through prairie grass

Soldiers on horseback patrolling the prairie

Laundry Day

Women dressed as laundresses with laundry buckets and scrub boards

High school students dressed as laundresses demonstrate laundry methods of the 1840s

Symbols of Sacrifice

Picture of rows of flags across the parade ground with trees in the background.

Image of flags from the Symbols of Sacrifice event.