Park Ranger Clayton Hanson, who recently joined the staff at Fort Larned National Historic Site, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 22, at the Barton County Historical Society’s monthly meeting. The program is open to the public and will be held at the Barton County Historical Museum, 85 South U.S. 281, just south of Great Bend, across the Arkansas River bridge.

Hanson has joined the interpretive team at Fort Larned, coming from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. He was attracted to Fort Larned because of its active “living history” program. He will be sharing his experience and talents in keeping the story of Fort Larned alive.
Born in Houston, Texas, but raised along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, Hanson attended the University of Washington, majoring in European studies. He holds a master’s degree in public history from Eastern Washington University and is working on a Ph.D. in history at the University of Nebraska, where his research topic is tourism in the The West during the late 19th and 20th centuries.