The Frontier Military Historic Byway links places that trace Kansas history from frontier forts and river trade to immigration, industry, transportation, agriculture, and military development. Fort Leavenworth, founded in 1827, is the oldest operating fort west of the Mississippi, with historic homes and buildings, a National Cemetery established in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln, the Frontier Army Museum, and the Buffalo Soldier Monument dedicated in 1992 by General Colin Powell. Fort Scott, established in 1842 to protect the Permanent Indian Frontier, was abandoned by the army in 1853, became a city during Bleeding Kansas, returned to service as an active US Army Headquarters during the Civil War, and later grew into an agricultural and industrial center. Leavenworth, incorporated in 1854 as a jumping off point for the West, remains known for its historic homes, downtown, riverfront, and museums. Pittsburg, founded in 1876 after the discovery of coal, became an industrial center supported by railroads, immigrant miners, other natural resources, and Pittsburg State University, founded 1903. The Kansas City, Kansas metropolitan area began with fur trappers and traders moving up the Missouri River and, founded in 1838 at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, became a strategic center for commerce, security, westward expansion, and tensions leading to the Civil War. Baxter Springs was first used by the Osage for its mineral springs, later became a trading post and Kansas' first cowtown after the Civil War, and was eventually placed on transcontinental Route 66. Louisburg grew on fertile farm ground after the relocation of the Confederated Tribes of Peoria, developed as a border town touched by Bleeding Kansas, and took its present name in 1872. Along this route, the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge reflects innovative environmental practice, Fort Leavenworth's Combined Arms Center represents continuing military development, and the corridor marks a starting point for immigrants, traders, and pioneers moving into Kansas and beyond.