This water color of Fort Zarah (Barton county) on the Santa Fe trail was done by Henry Worrell, famed Kansas illustrator, in 1891. It purports to show the post, which operated from 1864 to 1869, as it appeared in 1864-1865, "looking west." The painting was given to the State Historical Society in 1928 by Edna Reinbach of Spokane, Wash., a former Topekan.
Fort Zarah was established at the junction of the Santa Fe Trail, Walnut Creek, and the Smoky Hill Military Road as the result of ongoing conflict between traders and indigenous communities whose lives and land were threatened by encroaching settlement.
In May 1864, Captain Dunlap and Company H, 15th Kansas, camped at the ranch on Walnut Creek, calling it Camp Dunlap. On July 28, 1864 General Curtis re-named the camp, Fort Zarah, in honor of his son Zarah Curtis, who was killed by Quantrill Raiders (pro-confederate partisan guerillas) at Baxter Springs, Kansas in 1863..
The first fort was abandoned on April 7, 1866. A second fort was established with stone buildings on June 30, 1866 about 1/2 mile northwest of the first fort. The second fort was abandoned in December 1869 when it was felt that the Indian threat was not sufficient to warrant a second post so close to Fort Larned.
Although gone now, the buildings were made of Dakota sandstone quarried north of the fort. The walls were about 16 inches thick with a smooth face and the inner walls one foot thick. At the southeast and northwest corners there were hexagonal, two-story towers, with two sets of loopholes for rifle ports. These loopholes were arranged in sets of three on a side, and presented a face opening of two inches wide by 16 inches high that widening in the wall to a breadth of about 16 or 18 inches on the inside. Beneath the rooms running across the ends, there were cellars dug 8 feet deep and walled with stone. To the west at a distance of 20 feet was the magazine, which was 12 feet square and connected with the west cellar by an underground passage, 4 feet wide. A short distance to the southeast of the fort stood the guardhouse, a stone building about 14 feet square.
Sources: National Park Service, Legends of America, Kansas State Historical Society
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One of the oldest roads in the state, Fort Road was originally built by the federal government after Fort Ridgely was completed in 1853-54. Supplies were shipped from Fort Snelling to Traverse des Sioux, then transported by wagon to Fort Ridgely.
Nicollet County Road 5 runs more than 42 miles from its eastern terminus at its intersection with US Highway 169 in St Peter to the Renville County line. Old Fort Road presumably extended from Traverse des Sioux, although the portion running through the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College has been blocked off. Fort Road as an address runs from the western edge of St Peter to the end of CR-5.
In an ideal world, a paved trail would have been installed when the road was refurbished in the early 2010s. This planned geocache trail will have to suffice, but won’t alleviate my anxiety when biking here.