Fort Hays Kansas - History and Hauntings

KANSAS LEGENDS

Fort Hays - History & Hauntings

Fort Hays History:

Fort Fletcher was established on October 11, 1865 as a frontier military post to protect military roads, defend construction gangs on the Union Pacific Railroad, and guard the U.S. mail. Also tasked with protecting the stage and freight wagons of the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, the soldiers defended travelers from Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian attacks.

The post was first designated Fort Fletcher, in honor of Governor Thomas C. Fletcher of Missouri. On November 11, 1866, the name was changed to Fort Hays, for Brigadier General Alexander Hays, killed May 5, 1864 in the Civil War Battle of the Wilderness. In the spring of 1867 a flood nearly wiped out Fort Hays killing nine soldiers and civilians. Nearly 600 hundred troops were stationed here in the early years.

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Old Fort Hays

Some of the famous figures associated with the fort included Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, General Nelson Miles, General Philip Sheridan, and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. It was also the home of several well-known Indian Wars regiments such as the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, the Fifth U.S. Infantry, and the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, whose black troopers were better known as buffalo soldiers. After twenty-five years of service, Fort Hays was abandoned on November 8, 1889 after the Indian Wars had ended. The military reservation was transferred to the Interior Department on November 6, 1889, and to the state by a Congressional act on March 28, 1900.

Fort Hays Officer's Quarters, September, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

The original stone blockhouse, guardhouse and officers' quarters have been renovated. Displays through the historic site illustrate pioneer and military history. The museum was opened in 1967 and is administered by the Kansas State Historical Society. Part of the site is now the campus of Fort Hays State College.

Hauntings:

Sentinel Hill Haunting -- When a cholera epidemic hit Fort Hays, Kansas in 1867, a young woman named Elizabeth Polly was among those who attended to and comforted the ill and dying. Some say she was a trained nurse, while others maintain she had no medical training. When she wasn’t working tirelessly with the sick soldiers, she was said to take a moment to stroll upon nearby Sentinel Hill.

Eventually she too, contracted the disease and her dying wish was to be buried upon the hill. In the fall of 1867, she was given a full military funeral but alas, the soldiers were unable to grant her last wish as the hill is composed of bedrock, so she was buried at its base.

In 1905 Fort hays was closed. The soldiers bodies were moved to Fort Leavenworth and the civilian bodies were placed in the Hays City Cemetery. Elizabeth’s body was left where it lay.

The first recorded report of her sighting was made by a man named John Schmidt in 1917, who reported seeing a woman dressed in blue walking across his farm towards Sentinel Hill. Following her, the apparition walked into one of his sheds, but when he arrived no one was there and nothing had been disturbed.

In the 1950’s a patrolman claimed to have hit a woman dressed in a long blue dress with a white bonnet with his patrol car. However, when the officer got out of the car, there was no woman and no damage to the vehicle.

Elizabeth’s ghost continues to roam the hill in her long blue dress and white bonnet. Purportedly, her ghostly spirit emits a blue light and the locals began to call her the Blue Light Lady. The ghost of Elizabeth Polly has been seen many times over the years haunting the lonely hilltop that she had frequented so often in life.

Fort Hays Blockhouse, September, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

Today there is a park at Fort Hays that honors her memory. In 1941, Elizabeth’s body was reportedly moved to the summit of the hill and in the 1960’s a marker was placed at her gravesite that reads “The Lonely Grave.” Access to the grave is difficult by car and the last hundred yards or so must be covered by foot. Hays is located at the junction of Interstate 70 and US Highway 183 in central Kansas. Fort Hays is now a state historic site southwest of town. Elizabeth’s grave sits at the top of Sentinel Hill just southwest of Old Fort Hays.

See More Haunted Forts of Kansas

From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Ghost & Mystery Books - Legends of America and the Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of Ghost & Mystery books for our ghost hunting enthusiasts. For many of these, we have only one available. To see this varied collection, click HERE!