First called Camp Pond Creek, Fort Wallace was established in 1865. The fort served as the headquarters for troops given the task of protecting travelers headed west along the Smoky Hill Trail to the Denver gold fields. Fort Wallace was the westernmost military outpost in Kansas, and from 1865 to 1878 served as one of the most active military posts in the Central Plains. Troops often spent time in the field, and the fort was several times attacked by Plains Indians striving to defend their lands and protect their way of life. The fort was located about two miles to the southeast of this marker. Abandoned in 1882, nothing is now visible of the stone and wood buildings where once more than 300 men were stationed. Just north of where the fort once stood, the old post cemetery still exists, enclosed by stone walls within the Wallace Township Cemetery. In 1867 U.S. soldiers erected a monument as a tribute to their comrades who had been killed in action and buried there. Although the soldiers' remains were later moved to Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, the monument still stands in their honor.
US-40, Rest area, east of Wallace city limits Wallace County Kansas.
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Kansas 
