LARNED — Fort Larned National Historic Site invites the community to see a temporary exhibit on the Civil War in the Midwest being displayed in the fort’s Visitor Center.
In the words of Missouri historian Dr. Lewis E. Meador, “The Civil War was won in the West, but the histories were written in the East.”  
Mention the Civil War and many people think of Virginia battlefields, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant or Gettysburg.
However, there was a lot more going on than just the events in the Eastern Theater.  While the action in the East was important for political reasons, the real strategic victories were won in the Western Theater.
This three-part exhibit gives an overview of the reasons we went to war, how the soldiers from the Midwestern states experienced the war outside of Virginia, the importance of the resources and waterways of the Midwest to both sides’ war efforts, as well as the impact of the devastating guerilla war between the Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers in Kansas and Missouri.
Fort Larned also invite the community for a special program about the Civil War in the Midwest on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 1:30 p.m. by Park Ranger Celeste Dixon in the visitor center theater.  
Find out about the “other Civil War” outside of Virginia and the eastern seaboard and how control of the rivers and land in the trans-Mississippi region determined the war’s outcome.
This temporary exhibit was produced by the Park Service’s Midwest Regional Office and is traveling to different parks throughout the Midwest region to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  It will be at Fort Larned until Jan. 1, 2014, after which it will go William Howard Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Fort Larned National Historic Site is located six miles west of Larned on Kansas Highway 156.    Open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., information on visiting is on the internet at www.nps.gov/fols, or by calling 620-285-6911.  There is no admission fee.  For information on area tourism partners and community services go to www.larnedks.org or call (620) 285-6916.