Theodore Roosevelt Presidential LibraryPublic Lands Directory

Alerts and conditions

All clear. The managing agency, the National Weather Service and wildfire reporting show no current alerts.

Overview

Promises made and broken! Who deserves to be free? The fight for freedom! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from 1842-1873. All of the site's structures, its parade ground, and its tallgrass prairie bear witness to this era when the country was forged from a young republic into a united transcontinental nation.

From the National Park Service

History

The designation history for this site (every law, proclamation and order, and the administration behind each) is being researched and checked by the Library’s historians.

What to see and do

Activities

  • Guided Tours
  • Living History
  • Historic Weapons Demonstration
  • Junior Ranger Program
  • Park Film
  • Museum Exhibits
  • Shopping
  • Bookstore and Park Store

Browse hiking, biking and paddling routes on AllTrails

Plan your visit

Hours

Fort Scott National Historic Site: Park Visitor Center and historic building hours listed under 'Visitor Centers.' Visitors may walk the park grounds, walkways, and parking lot from ½ hour before sunrise until ½ hour after sunset, except during periods of snow, ice, or other inclement weather conditions that make the grounds unsafe.

Getting there

Fort Scott National Historic Site is located in downtown Fort Scott, Kansas. U.S. Highways 69 and 54 intersect here. Fort Scott is about 90 miles south of Kansas City and 60 miles northwest of Joplin, Missouri. It is 4 miles from the Kansas-Missouri border. Signs directing visitors to Fort Scott are posted on Highway 69 for visitors coming from the north and the south and on Highway 54 for visitors coming from the east and the west.

Visitor centers

Weather

Spring and autumn are pleasant with mild temperatures. Summers are generally hot and humid, while winters are mild with periods of cold weather, snowfall, and ice storms. Thunderstorms, some severe, are common throughout the spring and summer. During periods of severe weather, visitors should seek shelter, as the area is prone to lightning strikes. Visitors are advised to check the weather prior to traveling.

Phone: 6202230310

Whose lands these are

These lands are the ancestral and present-day homelands of Native nations. A section on whose lands these are is being prepared with tribal review. In the meantime, Native Land Digital offers a starting point.

Photos

Wood frame structures with stairs next to a stone walkway. Structures reflect afternoon sunlight.
Officers Quarters at Sunset · NPS Photo
Four soldiers on horseback in a line riding through prairie grass.
Dragoons on the Prairie · NPS Photo/Michelle Martin
Women dressed as laundresses with laundry buckets and scrub boards stand on a stone porch.
Laundry Day · NPS Photo
Picture of rows of flags across the parade ground with trees in the background.
Symbols of Sacrifice · NPS Photo: B. Boyko
6 reenactors dressed in white are firing a 6lbs field cannon.
Artillery Demonstration · NPS Photo: C. Brenner

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