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Road less traveled — Fort Larned NHS, Kansas

  • Tom Dell
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  • February 7, 2016
  • Nobody happens upon Fort Larned National Historic Site by accident.

    Nobody happens upon Fort Larned National Historic Site by accident.  If you come here, it’s because you want to.  Fort Larned, located in west central Kansas, isn’t near any other major attractions, nor is it on the way to any popular road trip destinations.  Only 24,000 people came here in 2014.

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    All buildings are originals — not reproductions

    Best frontier fort

    So why visit it?

    Two reasons:  First is its historical significance.  It’s the best-preserved and best-restored frontier fort from the Indian war period.  It served a key function as a guardian of the Santa Fe Trail.  And second, the National Park Service has done a superb job of setting the fort up for visitors, with great displays that show you what life here was like in the days of Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody, George Armstrong Custer and Phil Sheridan – all of whom hung out here from time to time.  If you can only visit one restored frontier army post, make it this one.

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    Troop quarters

     

    When I visited Fort Larned in December 2010, I loved it.  Of course, I had it all to myself. I especially liked the ½-mile nature trail, which takes you through tallgrass prairie and riparian woodland to the Pawnee River.

    I highly recommend Fort Larned as a detour if you’re taking a road trip that goes through Kansas.

    Logistics

    Fort Larned is open 8:30-4:30 daily.  Start at the visitor center, which has a 10-minute AV presentation, along with interesting displays of historical artifacts.  Ask the rangers if you can get a one-hour guided tour; these are offered daily May through September.  There’s no entry fee, and the guided tours are free.  Special “living history” events are held on holiday weekends; the next one will be on Memorial Day in late May.

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    Post doctor’s office

    You’ll find Fort Larned National Historic Site 6 miles west of the town of Larned, Kansas, on SR 156.  For directions, go to the NPS website at www.nps.gov/fols/index

    All travel services are in Great Bend, 30 miles northeast.  Just down the road a piece is the Santa Fe Trail Museum, open Tuesday-Saturday 9-5.  It houses informative displays on the Santa Fe Trail and its role in development of the West.  Admission is $4 for adults and $1.50 for ages 6-11.

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    Cool small town — Oatman, Arizona

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 31, 2016
  • Oatman is a guilty pleasure.  I’ll explain that remark in a paragraph or two after I tell you what it is and where it’s located. Oatman is an authentic Old West mining town located in the Black Mountains of northwest Arizona, not far from the glittering casinos of Laughlin, Nevada.  Unlike most mining towns that […]

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    Useful tools for road trip planning

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 24, 2016
  • Planning your next road trip?  There are literally hundreds of websites and smart phone apps that are potentially useful for road trippers.  In this post, I’ve listed the ones I’ve found most helpful.  Please let me know if I’ve missed something www.google.com This is the king of websites and easily the most used and most […]

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    Rotating photos to change

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 20, 2016
  • You’ve no doubt noticed the six rotating photos on our home page.  We’ve had the same photos since launching this blog last spring, but we’ve never labeled them.  They’re about to change, so now’s a good time to identify where they were taken. Monument Valley on the Utah-Arizona border; this is the photo you see […]

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    A visit to Santa Fe

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 17, 2016
  • Everyone needs to visit Santa Fe at least once.  Actually, make that twice:  There are too many great shops, wonderful art galleries and fantastic restaurants to experience in a single visit. Santa Fe is worthy of being a road trip destination, no matter where you live.  No other city looks like it No other U.S. […]

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    News update: Trans Canada Hwy. and Yosemite

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 15, 2016
  • Trans Canada Highway reopens A collapsed bridge on a critical section of the Trans Canada Highway has partially reopened, according to news reports published on the Yahoo Canroads forum.  The Nipigon River Bridge, located in western Ontario near Thunder Bay, collapsed earlier this month and severed the only road connection between the western and eastern […]

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    Two SoCal railroad museums

  • Tom Dell
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  • January 10, 2016
  • This week, Road Trips with Tom visits two Southern California railroad museums – one near Riverside and another along the Mexican border east of San Diego. Both have great collections of historic rail equipment, and both offer train rides on weekends. All aboard! If you live in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside or San Diego counties, […]

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