Lake Scott State Park

Lake Scott State Park in western Kansas combines recreation with one of the state's most unusual historic sites. Established in 1928 on land donated by the Herbert Steele family, it includes Steele's surviving sandstone homestead museum, linked to early settlement in Scott County. More exceptionally, the park contains El Cuartelejo, the only known Indian pueblo in Kansas. Taos people fleeing Spanish rule and allied Plains Apache built it in 1664 with irrigation ditches, and Picuri people later reoccupied it. Used in later frontier activity, the site eventually eroded until Steele identified its ruins in 1889. Archaeological excavations led to its reconstruction and National Historic Landmark designation.

Kansas · United States