Wednesday, October 10 (7:30PM) to Saturday, October 13, 2012 (5:00pm)
Led by Robert F. O’Neill and Bruce Venter
Based in Hays, KS
Tour Registration Fee: $495.00
Shortly after the Civil War ended two iconic figures from that war, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock and Major General George Armstrong Custer (now a lieutenant colonel) came to the Kansas Plains to fight Indians. In 1867 Hancock’s mission was to discourage Indian raiding in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, but the famous Union general ended up with a full scale war on his hands by 1868. Custer, a famed cavalryman at the time was a perfect subordinate for Hancock. But “Hancock’s War” as it was called did not do either officer’s reputation any good. Our tour will visit the battle sites and forts of Custer’s campaign thru Kansas, years before his final encounter with the Sioux in Montana.
On our first day we will start with a visit to Fort Hays, built to protect the railroad which was being constructed parallel to the old Smoky Hill Trail. With four original buildings intact, the fort saw the likes of Custer, Phil Sheridan and Buffalo Bill Cody. Nearby is the tree-covered Custer Island where the general bivouacked his 7th Cavalry troopers. Then it’s on to Fort Larned, an outstanding example of a frontier fort that retains most of its original buildings. After Fort Larned, we’ll visit Pawnee Rock, a well-known landmark along the Santa Fe Trail with some great stories. From there you’ll get to see the obscure Pawnee Fork Crossing which now sits on the grounds of a state hospital. At Burdett, we’ll stop at the site where Hancock and Custer faced off an Indian band. Nearby you’ll see the site of the Pawnee River Indian village burned by Hancock.
