Fort Dodge

On our way back from Colorado, we stopped in Dodge City for the night. The next day, we drove around Fort Dodge, a small, well-preserved fort that was originally built during the Indian wars of the 19th century.

These days, the fort has housing for veterans, with many modest, well-kept private homes on the grounds.

Since the museums were closed when we came through, we spent most of our time at a small park near the side of the road. It was created in 1970 by the Disabled American Veterans Department of Kansas. There's a decommissioned cannon, a gaudily painted red, white, and blue fountain, and some picnic tables.

Here, we captured a few rare photos of all six of us since my little sister Tabitha was along for the ride.

While the park isn't too fancy, it was certainly a nice place to get out and stretch our legs before the long drive home.

Fort Scott

Fort Scott has a lot of beautiful old homes.

We really liked La Hacienda, in the downtown area!

Fort Scott was a lot of fun! We arrived in the evening, had a nice meal at La Hacienda, a local Mexican restaurant (fitting, since it was Cinco de Mayo), and checked into our hotel. Or tried to check into our hotel, at
any rate. The desk clerk was not very skilled with figuring out online reservations, and then she gave us the wrong room. All of this meant that bedtime was shifted from an already-late 9:30 back to nearly 11 p.m.!

Finally, we did get things figured out, and had a good night's sleep. We arose bright and early the next morning to begin exploring the town.

We began by grabbing some breakfast burritos at Sonic, then drove along the main historic streets to explore the town a bit. It has many beautifully maintained Victorian houses, some of which have even been transformed into restaurants or B&Bs.

The kids did great while waiting for Dad to get the room
straightened out.

One thing that piqued our curiosity was the Real School of Hard Knocks. We didn't know what it was, but apparently it's an old school building that has been converted into a concert venue, AirSoft range, and four-wheeler track.

Next, we stopped by the Farmer's Market, where we got some miniature pies for breakfast. After looking at all of the stalls, we headed over to the historic site of Fort Scott. The buildings and grounds there have been lovingly restored to how they looked in the 19th Century. The kids were excited to explore them, especially because at the end of our adventure, they were sworn in as Junior Park Rangers. While we were there, we learned a lot about the town's role in westward expansion, Bleeding Kansas, and the Civil War.

I hadn't known this before, but Fort Scott was originally supposed to be part of the Permanent Indian Frontier, which was designed to insulate native peoples and white settlers from each other. As with so many promises made by the U.S. government to native peoples, however, this one melted away under white settlers' pressure to continue westward expansion.

We all got a lot of exercise touring the fort.

We couldn't resist stopping in at Books and Grannies, a delightful used book shop, before leaving town. It was a perfect way to end our fun visit to this historic community.

The fort was very educational... and FUN!

We loved Books and Grannies! Granny Roxine is so sweet,
and she has a great selection of books.