LARNED — In lieu of the annual Christmas Open House, Ft. Larned National Historic Site will host a virtual video Christmas event. The virtual open house is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 19 at 9 a.m. and can be viewed on the FLNHS Facebook page and website.
One of the highlights features the tale of Santa Claus becoming a soldier at the post for a day, which was part of his regularly scheduled checkups to make his final determinations on who’s naughty and who’s nice. Be sure to check the Facebook page either on or after 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 19th to see how Santa fared when he became a soldier at Ft. Larned and who he determined made the naughty and nice list.
The Ft. Larned Christmas Open House event dates back nearly 40 years and has traditionally been geared toward family and children.
“We’ve had the pictures with Santa event, which is always a hit, along with food, games and crafts. Sadly, those activities will not be taking place this year,” said Benjamin Long, park ranger and guide at FLNHS. “I believe this is the first time we ever hosted a virtual open house and it provides a venue for us to safely provide a connection with folks who look forward to this yearly activity.”
He noted that, including production interruptions, the entire virtual production has taken roughly a month to put together. “We’ve been working on this bit-by-bit, shooting and editing footage and gradually putting it all together.” While a final run time has not been tallied, Long said the entire production should run from five to seven minutes.
Most of the open house virtual production and other work involving maintaining the park’s website and social media platforms and creating public education events is conducted by Long and members of the park’s interpretation division. “Our interpretation team handles the bulk of our public relations efforts and provides information to anyone requesting it,” said Long. “They’re also involved in the creative process of producing this virtual event.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has altered much of the modus operandi, Long said visitors are still able to physically take in some of the park’s features. “Luckily, we’ve been able to stay open through much of this pandemic,” Long said. “Because of our normal volume of visitation, we’re able to have most of the buildings open for most of the time.” He added that all of the park’s historic structures and the grounds are currently open to the public as well as the historic and nature trails.
According to Long, cellphone and other virtual tours are available and have been featured since 2014, six years before COVID-19. “Some people who were highly educated in the history of the Santa Fe Trail visited the park and helped us establish the cellphone tour, which has served as an effective educational tool,” he said.
Looking to the future, Long said upcoming projects will begin to lean on the virtual side of formatting.
“We have a few ventures in the works right now,” said Long, noting that one of those projects involves a collaboration with the Santa Fe Trail Center and Museum. “We hope this will be a fairly extensive production,” he said. “Our current release window for that project will be sometime next fall.”
Any project involves money and Long said the best way for the public to give is to be financially involved in those projects. “Fortunately for us, the main channel of funding comes through the federal government so we don’t have to be involved with a lot of fundraising campaigns,” he said. “Our website and social media have played an important role in that purpose but also folks showing up in person to provide support when the situation allows.”
The well-preserved fort shares a tumultuous history of the Indian Wars era. The sandstone constructed buildings sheltered troops who were known as the Guardians of the Santa Fe Trail. Larned, Kansas, and the fort that was constructed there are named in honor of Colonel Benjamin F. Larned, the paymaster general of the United States Army at the time the post was established. Col. Larned experienced a lengthy military career, first serving as an ensign in the 21st Infantry during the War of 1812. He was promoted to captain after the defense of Ft. Erie, and by 1854 Larned was a colonel and had been appointed paymaster general. Despite the town and fort bearing his name, Col. Larned never came to Kansas.
For more information on this year’s Christmas Virtual Open House and other activities, visit the Ft. Larned National Historic Site’s webpage at www.nps.gov/FortLarned and its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/fortlarnednhs/.
