FORT LARNED Master Plan

I. Historic Resource Preservation

To identify, evaluate, protect, and preserve the Park's historic resources in a manner consistent with executive and administrative requirements and the Service's historic preservation policies.

To prevent further deterioration of the historic structures of Fort Larned due to neglect, use of improper materials and/or methods for maintenance, improper drainage away from structures and previous alterations of the historic structures.

To fully restore the exteriors of the nine remaining historic buildings that delineate the quadrangle at Fort Larned.

To preserve these resources in a historically authentic condition.

To restore and perpetuate, at the Fort and the Santa Fe Trail Ruts, the native prairie vegetation which provided the setting for the Park's historic resources during the historically significant period in the mid-nineteenth century.

To provide full time security against fire, theft, and vandalism.

II. Acquisition of Information

To secure, through research or other means, sufficient information on the Park's cultural and natural resources to facilitate their preservation, interpretation, and appropriate use and development.

1. To secure photographic records of Fort Larned and the surrounding area from 1859 to 1919, and photographs of officers and their families, enlisted men and their families, civilians such as Post Sutlers and Traders, and Indians of the area from 1859-1878.

2. To secure written records such as diaries, journals, letters, maps, engineering drawings of the military buildings, manuscripts pertaining to Army life at Fort Larned, and other archival material that may relate to Fort Larned and its personnel between the years 1859 and 1878.

III. Interpretation

To foster public understanding and awareness of the significance of Fort Larned in the westward expansion of pioneer settlements, with particular emphasis on its role in protecting traffice along the Santa Fe Trail and in providing a strategic base for military operations during the Indian campaigns of the late 1860's.

IV. Visitor Services and Development

To improve the quality of park development and visitor services in a manner consistent with preserving the historic resources and their setting.

1. To move the maintenance shop operation from its present location in a historic structure.

2. To eliminate all employee living quarters within the boundaries of Fort Larned National Historic Site.

V. Lands

To secure a manageable boundary through adjustment or other means.

To eliminate all irrigation structures and equipment within the historic zone.

VI. Cooperation

To cooperate with other governmental agencies, private organizations, and members of the public:

1. To ensure that development and use of lands within and without the Park are compatible, to the greatest degree possible, with preservation of Park values.

2. To develop coordinated programs for the preservation and interpretation of historic resources related to early pioneer settlement of the region.

3. To facilitate integration of visitor services and recreational opportunities in the Park and surrounding region.

To cooperate with private landowners in the Park and its immediate vicinity to minimize, if possible eliminate, the adverse aesthetic effects of agricultural spraying and irrigation ditches on the Park environment.

To cooperate with the Kansas State Highway Department and Pawnee County Highway Department, in improving the bridge over the Pawnee River at the western boundary of the Fort Larned unit of the Park, and in diverting heavy vehicle traffic from State Route 242 adjacent to the historically significant resource.

To work with local utility companies to eliminate the adverse effects of aerial transmission lines on the Park's historic setting.

To cooperate with private landowners, State and/or Federal agencies to eliminate the irrigation retaining dam located just east of the Park boundary on the Pawnee River.

To cooperate with the Kansas State Highway Department to improve informational and directional signing for Fort Larned.