Fort Larned was a frontier army post west of Larned, Kansas, established in 1859 to protect traffic on the Santa Fe Trail and later involved in administering Central Plains tribes under the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861. Originally begun as Camp on Pawnee Fork and briefly called Camp Alert, it became Fort Larned in 1860. During the Civil War, volunteer units replaced regular troops as raids on trail traffic increased. The fort also figured in Plains conflicts and housed the 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of the first two all-Black cavalry regiments in the U.S. Army. Abandoned in 1878, it remains one of the best-preserved forts of the Indian Wars period.