The Camp on Pawnee Fork, later renamed Camp Alert, was founded by the U.S. Army to protect a mail station being built at a site called Pawnee Fork. This station, on the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...

was threatened by

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

and

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

Indians who wanted the site left vacant. The first company of cavalry troops arrived Sept. 1, 1859. On October 4, Capt. George H. Steuart arrived with seventy-five cavalrymen, possibly adding to the original force. At this time the camp received its first name, Camp on Pawnee Fork. The Army found the site of the Camp very suitable for its escort protection needs, as it was located on an isolated stretch of the Santa Fe Trail. Steuart was to protect the mail station, escort mail trains along about a stretch of the Santa Fe Trail and Lieut. David Bell, was reduced to thirty men. Since Bell had fewer horses, his force was not able to escort all the mail coaches. The men spent much time remaining alert for unfriendly Indians and because of this, the name of the post was changed to Camp Alert on February 1, 1860. On May 4 Capt. Henry Wessels, the new post commander, arrived with more troops, increasing garrison to 160 men. Wessels looked for a better site for the post and moved it upstream, to the west. On May 29 the post was renamed

Fort Larned Fort Larned National Historic Site preserves Fort Larned which operated from 1859 to 1878. It is approximately west of Larned, Kansas, United States. History The Camp on Pawnee Fork was established on October 22, 1859 to protect traffic al ...

. The old site of Camp Alert was never again used."Camp Alert, Kansas," undated flyer (from the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka).

References

{{reflist Pawnee Fork Forts in Kansas 1859 establishments in Kansas Territory Santa Fe Trail 1860 disestablishments in the United States