The FSNHS is joining with other National Park Service areas in waiving entrance fees on Thursday in observance of Veterans Day. The normal entrance fee of $3 will be waived for each adult who is at least 16 years of age; youth who are 15 years of age and younger are normally admitted to the site free of charge.
Visitors will be able to experience Fort Scott's past and untold stories through the convenience of their own cell phones. The self-guided cell phone tours consist of 12 stops, and each stop highlights a different building or area of the fort, focusing on how each area contributed to Fort Scott becoming the "Crack Post of the Frontier," as the fort was called by U.S. Army Capt. Thomas Swords in 1842. Swords was the quartermaster who designed the fort and was in charge of its construction.
"It meant the best," FSNHS Park Ranger Kelley Collins said of the meaning behind the term coined by Swords.
The year 1842 was when the fort was built and a time of major westward expansion for the United States.
Collins said the cell phone tours are a relatively new service available at the historic site.
"It's something we put in place earlier this year to share with people ... a new service that we offer," she said. "It's a new way to provide information to the public."
At each stop, visitors will dial a provided number on their cell phones and receive a detailed description and history of the particular location.
Many of the nation's parks preserve the battlefields, forts and other places where the nation's veterans fought and served in defense of their nation. FSNHS is a restored 1840s-era military fort that served as a base for soldiers who protected the nation's frontier, patrolled the overland trails, and fought in the Mexican-American War. The Army abandoned Fort Scott in 1853, but returned periodically to keep peace during the Bleeding Kansas era from 1854-61.
During the Civil War, the Union Army used Fort Scott as a supply base, recruitment center and training ground. Several military regiments were raised in this area, including the First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment, the first African-American unit to engage in combat during the Civil War. There were also three companies of American Indian soldiers mustered into the Union Army on the grounds of Fort Scott.
FSNHS commemorates the contributions of all these soldiers who played a role in the growth of the nation and the advancement of freedom and equality in the mid-19th century, according to a news release.
The site is now operating on its winter schedule, which runs until March 31, and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is a repository for artifacts relating to the former U.S. Army frontier military outpost. Those artifacts and the fort itself tell the story of Fort Scott between 1842 and 1873.
There is no charge for the cell phone tours other than the user's daytime phone minutes. Visitors may stop by the visitors' center at the site and pick up a map of the route and the phone number to call at each stop.
For more information, call the site at (620) 223-0310, or visit www.nps.gov/fosc.