Fort Larned is a National Historic Site, about 65 mi northeast of Dodge City. In the middle of nowhere, at the time, and, even today it seems to be pretty remote and gives a good idea of a military fort in the 19th century and the tough life of the soldiers. What is most noticeable here, is the constant strong wind, it might have driven people crazy. The fort was founded in 1859 as a makeshift military post, called "Camp at Pawnee Fork" (the Pawnee is a river). In 1866 solid stone buidlings were erected to better protect traffic along the Santa Fe Trail from hostile Indians. Fort Larned hosted different military units: the 3rd Infantry spent the longest time here, but also the 10th Cavalry - the famous black "Buffalo Soldiers" - were stationed.
The post was abandoned in 1878 and later became part of a ranch. In 1964 it was declared a National Historic Site. Visitors nowadays can explore the baracks (sleeping quarters of the enlisted soldiers, many of them with German names!), the shops (blacksmiths, carpenters, saddlers, etc.), warehouses (supplies as food, ammunition, and clothing), the Officers' Row - housing for lieutenants and one captain -, and the blockhouse was used for defense, later as a prison.
On to the town of Larned, not too impressive and not too large, but honored with a one-of-a-kind Mexican restaurant: "El Dos de Oros" is not much to look at from the outside, but colorfull and packed inside. They are serving huge plates of authentic mexican food for very reasonable prices. Peter had steak fajitas, I had the combi platter with chile relleno, burrito and taco - both meals very tasty.
Well fed, our next stop was the Santa Fe Trail Center, closeby, which proved to be more a historical museum than a Santa Fe Trail museum. The inside exhibitions are currently being modernized, there is a big hall for agricultural equipment, one for classic cars and - most interesting - there are historic buildings on the property: school, church, sod house, dugout etc.
We took a side route back to Dodge City, parked at Boot Hill Museum/Visitor Center and explored downtown a little more. Especially, we wanted to take pictures of El Capitan, a famous longhorn steer (see pic), who led a couple of cattle drives because he was so reliable, and of the statues of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (pic) and the plaques of the Trail of Fame. Longing for a coffee, we noticed that downtown itself has touristically not too much to offer, rather it's clearly dominated by mexican infrastructure.
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