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FORT RILEY: Cavalry Outpost to Infantry Powerhouse

© Janette Kenny

As the influx of emigrants and caravans on the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail increased, so did attacks from marauding Indians and outlaws. A centrally located military outpost was needed to provide protection for frontier travelers.

Colonel Thomas T. Fauntleroy of the 1st Dragoons recommended the new outpost be built on the north bank of the Kansas River where the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers converged. He felt the establishment of this fort would make it feasible to abandon forts Leavenworth, Scott, Atkinson, Kearny and Laramie, thereby saving the government money.

Because the site was believed to be the geographical center of the country, the new outpost was named Camp Center on 17 May 1853. Following the death of Colonel Bennett Riley of the 1st U.S. Infantry, Camp Center was renamed Fort Riley on June 27, 1853. In 1829, then Major Riley had commanded the first military escort on the Santa Fe Trail.

As soldiers guarded the plains the following year, the small settlement of Pawnee sprang up in Fort Riley's shadow. Andrew H. Reeder, newly appointed territorial governor, saw a means to make a profit land speculating, and secretly and illegally bought Indian lands around Pawnee from local half-breeds.

From 7 October to 24 November 1854, the Territorial Governor's office was situated at Fort Leavenworth. But Reeder soon butted heads with the proslavery faction.

After a brief removal to Shawnee Mission, Reeder transferred his legislative branch to Pawnee. When word got out that the tiny town would be the capital, people swarmed into the free-state settlement. It wasn't long before buildings dotted the prairie.

During the spring of 1855, a two-story limestone building intended to be the first capitol building was begun in Pawnee. It was built so quickly that some floorboards weren't nailed down. A hole on the upper west side that stonemasons used as a pass through during construction remains to this day.

The last nail was driven in the roofing the day before the legislature was to convene. By that time, Reeder's term as governor was galloping to its end.

Proslavery factions held sway over the territorial elections and the first item on their agenda was to reverse the election the previous May that made the Kansas Territory a free state. Their second task was pass a bill to transfer the seat of government from Pawnee to Shawnee Mission, where proslavers had a foothold.

Reeder protested, but his efforts were in vain. Pawnee was the territorial capital for five days.