Fort Hays
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Fort Hays was an important frontier outpost of the United States Army in the western state of Kansas. It was located five miles south of present day Walker, Kansas, and was operational from 1865 until 1889. Fort Hays was named for Civil War general Alexander Hays, who had been killed in 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness.
The fort, originally designated Fort Fletcher (after Governor Thomas C. Fletcher of Missouri), became operational on October 11, 1865. The army garrisoned the fort to protect the stage and freight wagons of the Butterfield Overland Despatch traveling along the Smoky Hill Trail to Denver. The fort closed in early 1866 when the stage coach company went bankrupt from repeated Indian attacks. It was reopened in October 1866 at a new location just north of Fort Fletcher, and was redesignated as Fort Hays. The post, being located within 5 miles of a railroad, served as an important supply depot for other forts farther into the frontier.
Fort Hays was abandoned on November 8, 1889. Four of the original buildings still stand as a museum administered by the Kansas State Historical Society.
