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P.O. Box 19423
Lenexa,
KS 66285
913-708-5119
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KANSAS LEGENDS
Fort Hays -
History & Hauntings |
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Fort Hays Blockhouse, September, 2006, Kathy
Weiser.
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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.
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See More Haunted Forts of Kansas
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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!
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