Just 6 mi/10 km west of Larned, Kansas, off Highway 156, is the Fort Larned National Historic Site, which preserves a fort that was built in 1859 to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Its nine restored buildings make it the best-preserved Indian Wars military post on the Santa Fe Trail, and there's a museum in one of the barracks. Wheel ruts created by wagons on the Sante Fe Trail are still visible near the fort.
To learn more about the trail, stop by the Sante Fe Trail Center, which is 2 mi/3 km west of Larned on Highway 156. In addition to artifacts and displays about the frontier route, the center maintains a reconstructed hunting lodge used by the Wichita tribe, as well as a sod house. Larned is an easy, 65-mi/105-km drive northwest of Wichita.
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