Fort Hays Historical Site in Hays, Kansas

June 2, 2023

Since we had some time before our dinner invitation on May 20th, we decided to check out the Fort Hays Historical Site.

I enjoyed this walking tour. It was free, but I think they normally charge. All the prices were marked out, with free written next to them.

The simulated bison ( buffalo) products were touchable. I picked up several of them to get a closer look.

We walked out of the first building and headed to the stone blockhouse. It was built in 1867 and is hexagonal in shape with a 17 foot radius. The two wings extend north and south, each 17 feet square.

Here are some of the pictures of the architecture.

The exhibits have “stories of some of the officers who were stationed at Fort Hays and explain what happened to the fort after the military left in 1889.”

I enjoyed seeing the silhouettes of the people who lived in the fort as we walked from building to building.

After the Blockhouse, we walked over to the stone guardhouse.

We walked past the back of the officers’ housing. There were outhouses, a garden, and then the wooden officers’ houses.

Both houses were open to tour. The individual houses were shared between two officers. A house had two front parlors, one for each officer. There were two bedrooms, one for each officer. The dinning room and kitchen were shared between the two officers who shared a house. The officer might have his family living with him. If the officer had his wife and children with him, they shared the bedroom upstairs.

The houses were set up to show family life on one side and a single life on the other side.

The lighting in the bedrooms meant my pictures of the bedrooms didn’t turn out very well.

After our tour of the Fort Hays Historic Site, we crossed the road to admire the bison (buffalo).

This was a fun tour. We could’ve spent longer, but we weren’t sure how interesting historical Fort Hays would be. We should’ve given ourselves more time.