Since its establishment in 1848 as a military post to protect and aid travelers, to its designation as a State Park in 1929, Fort Kearny changed from military, to private, and finally, public ownership.  Patriotic sentiment, local community interests, and private ownership kept the grounds preserved and maintained while plans went forward to formalize the area as a historical site.  Local residents used it as a gathering spot for various reunions and recreational events and in 1929 they donated the site to the State of Nebraska.
     In 1932, The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) dedicated a monument with over 5,000 spectators in attendance at the ceremony. Volunteers and former members of the Fort Kearny Memorial Association had prepared the grounds themselves for the event.  The Kearney Hub newspaper of July 1932 lists such amenities as a water pump, toilet facilities, brick ovens and an incinerator.  Roads and grounds were improved and "a baseball diamond was laid out east of the big grove."  Speakers included several that had resided at the Fort when it was an active military instillation.  This ceremony was in connection with a three-day annual encampment by the VFW members on the site of the old parade grounds.  The VFW unveiled a nine-foot granite monument to mark the site of Fort Kearny "in honor of the soldiers and pioneers of Fort Kearny", as well
as erecting a 55-foot flagpole.  The site was now officially an historic military site with the appropriate marker and flagstaff.

Fort Kearny Monument

      Surrounding communities continued to improve the property and use its picnic grounds through the 1930's and 40's.  Maintenance and the necessary funding for payment toward that maintenance was slow to come from the State level.  In a 1938 publication of the Nebraska State Historical Society, the editor mentioned the problems of caring for the trees that were planted at the Park ground in 1934. A neighbor and volunteer caretaker, V. W. Binderup, appealed to Governor Weaver for assistance in the tree care.  However, by the time the trees were ready for planting, a new governor had taken office and did not demonstrate the same enthusiasms for the Kearny site as Governor Weaver.  It wasn't until October of 1942 that the Kearney County Board passed a resolution requesting the State Game, Parks and Forestation Commission to appoint a resident supervisor of the Fort Kearny Park.  V. W. Binderup of Minden was appointed and as a result many trees were planted during his tenure.
     Sentimentality for the site continued in the 1930s and is demonstrated through the writings of A. E. Sheldon in the publications of the Nebraska History Magazine.  In the 1938 publication, Sheldon presents a poem "Old Cottonwoods of Military Avenue," after mentioning Fort Kearny in his address concerning the dedicating of the replica of the blockhouse at the Fort Kearny at Table Creek.  In that address Sheldon states "There, some day, will be a restored New Fort Kearny, and historical tourists will travel in three hours from the first Fort Kearny Block House here at Nebraska City to the second Fort Kearny, on whose parade ground will be a marker inscribed with this verse which won first prize in a Nebraska state-wide contest in 1930".
     Local citizens of Kearney County had taken of the Fort grounds and continued to use the park like area for picnics and baseball games in an unofficial manner.  In the 1930s and 40s, small communities in the area used the site for their week end baseball games and the neighboring town of Newark claimed the site as their home field.  Strawberries planted on the grounds became a part of the ice cream socials that occurred during this time period.
     By 1946 a new organization was formed combining interests of community leaders in Buffalo and Kearney counties.  Under the name of Fort Kearny Memorial Committee, a professional architect was hired to submit a plan for developing the site.  This detailed plan by the architectural survey association of Clark and Emerson of Lincoln, Nebraska was completed by August of 1948.  The total cost to develop the site as a public park was estimated at $106,852.  Although submitted to the State legislature in November of 1948, and supported strongly by area communities and adjacent counties, the bill did not pass the state legislature.
     These set backs in State funding support did not stifle the interest shown by the citizens of Buffalo and Kearny counties as they planned for a spectacular one-hundred year anniversary in 1948.  Committees were formed early to plan for the 5,000 whom ultimately attended the affair. The gala was held on Wednesday, September 22, 1948 and an impressive schedule of events started with band concerts from the communities of Axtell, Minden and Kearney.  An additional musical presentation was offered by the Kearney Barbershop Quartet while the Kearney Country rural schools provided a "pioneer dance in costume."  Community leaders were present in addition to dignitaries from out state Nebraska.  Speakers in attendance included Governor Val Peterson; Congressman Carl Curtis; James Olson, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society; a representative of the US. Post Office Department in Washington D.C. and the president of the American Pioneer Trail Association from New York City.  The main address was given by Dr. Lyle C. Mantor of Kearney State Teachers College, who did extensive research on the Fort for his Ph.D. requirements in 1934.  The event closed with a scheduled ball game on the ever-popular Fort Kearny baseball diamond.  As part of the centennial commemoration, the United States Congress authorized the issuance of a first issue U.S. Postal Stamp recognizing the Fort's centennial anniversary with President Harry Truman signing the approval.  Addition staff had to be hired to handle the massive number of requests that came to the Minden Post Office during the summer and fall of 1948.

U.S. Postage Stamp of Fort Kearny

      James Olson of the State Historical Society read a paper prepared by James Lawrence, then President of the Nebraska State Historical Society which praised the site as a public history venue which would benefit a large regional constituency, well beyond the local community or even the state of Nebraska.
     Dr. Mantor announced the donation of a $25,000 trust fund, which had been set up in 1944 by Harold Warp. The trust fund was "to be used for the development and restoration of Fort Kearny at such time as the sponsors see fit to start the work."  Dr. Mantor also referred to plans sent to the State from the Clark and Emerson architectural site study.  All who attended the gala affair presumed that restoration would follow in short order.
     In fact, it was not until a decade later that a formal restoration program could begin.  Funding did not get appropriated from the State legislature until the formal designation of which state agency would be responsible for the management of the site.  Finally, on May 8, 1959, the Nebraska legislature passed a bill (known as LB 408) establishing a system of classifying state park areas, and provided funds for their development.  Under this act, Fort Kearny was classified as a State Historic Park and development could begin under the management of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. And so, the illusive title of historic park finally became formalized.  This was a necessary step to determine state management and funding direction.  Thirty years had passed since the community gift of the property in 1929 to the State of Nebraska.  The idea of a public history site had never been lost at the local level, only the designation of the site in a formal manner was delayed.
     In 1960, the Fort Kearny Preservation, Restoration and Development Board, as decreed by Governor Ralph Brooks, replaced the Fort Kearny Memorial Association.  Today, contributions continue to be collected by this board and deposited with the Kearney County treasurer in Minden, and withdraws are made by warrant requests signed by the authorized members of the current board.
     Extensive archeological excavations of the building sites were done in the summer of 1960 and 1961 as a cooperative agreement between the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Nebraska State Historical Society.  The Historical Society provided the historical authenticity and procedural knowledge, while the Game and Parks commission handled funding and management of the site.  A 1967 agreement from the sixty-ninth session of the Nebraska State Legislature further clarified the responsibilities of the two agencies.
     In 1964, a third season of archeological surveying and digging was authorized to determine the specifics necessary for the reconstruction of the adobe blacksmith and carpenter shop.  By October 1965, the reconstruction of the building began with the making of sod and adobe bricks for the exterior of the building.  The work on the reconstruction continued for several seasons with the completion in 1967 of the major exterior and interior walls.  Storage units for artifacts found and cataloged by the Historical Society's field crew were constructed in the south end of the building where the carpentry area was reconstructed.  Later problems with rainwater necessitated a new roof in 1978 with a more modern material, and covered by sod and logs to conceal the necessary waterproofing.  In the interim, the original site of the flagpole on the parade grounds had been uncovered, and a new flagpole was reconstructed, using the same type of materials as the original. A replica of an 1865 flag has flown from the flagpole since its reconstruction in 1970.
     The following is a chronology of the physical development of the site since its designation as a State Historical Park:
   1961 - First superintendent hired and on site housing built
   1962 - Stockade rebuilt
   1966 - Blacksmith and carpenter shop reconstructed
   1968 - Museum and visitor center built
   1968 - Dedication and opening the park to the public in June
   1976 - Powder magazine reconstructed
   1986 - Powder magazine redone due to collapse of original
   1973 and 1986   - Interpretive displays in visitor center constructed

     During the excavations, artifacts of the period were unearthed, and some of these items are displayed in the Interpretive Center along with other artifacts donated from area collections.  News articles explained that the original $25,000 made available by Harold Warp went toward the construction of the Interpretive Center, originally called a museum and visitor center, with one room designated for the display of artifacts, relevant documents, and written material.  This display was set up according to the directives of the Nebraska State Historical Society, with construction and funding by the Game and Parks Commission.  Other areas in the building included a room for slide presentations and other educational lectures as well as accommodating small group meetings.

Sod Building and Wagons

      Fort Kearny hosts visitors from throughout the United States.  They walk the marked areas around the old parade ground that includes stops at the stockade walls, the reconstructed blacksmith and carpenter shop, and the powder magazine (ammunition storage mound).  Many of these visitors stay at the adjoining campsite built around several man made gravel pits originating in the 1940s and acquired by the State in the 1960s.
     Currently, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission manages and supervises the development of the Fort Kearny Historical Park while the Nebraska State Historical Society provides professional historical information and procedure techniques.  The evolution of the Fort Kearny site from a prominent and important crossroad for many types of travelers to a public space of historical value demonstrates how communities create their historical consciousness.  The term, " public history site" could be applied to the Fort Kearny area long before recognition of the area as a State Historical Park by the Nebraska State Legislature.  This is a significant lesson in public history that represents – the rest of the story.
 

Sources:

Kimball, Beverly M. "Fort Kearny: Guardian of the Plain," Buffalo Tales II, no 6 (1988).
Mantor, Lyle E.  "Fort Kearny and the Westward Movement," Nebraska History
      Vol. 21. no. 3 (1948): 175-207.
Mantor, Lyle E.  "The History of Fort Kearny."  Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa, 1934.
Sheldon, Addison E. "The History of Fort Kearny" Publications of the Nebraska State
      Historical Society, vol. 21 (1930). Also Nebraska History , vol. 19, no. 2, 1938 and
      Nebraska History  vol. 10, no. 3, 1939.
Willman, Lillian, N.  "The History of Fort Kearney."  Masters Thesis, University of
      Nebraska, Lincoln, 1930.
Wilson, D. Ray. Fort Kearny on the Platte.  Dundee, Illinois: Crossroads
      Communication, 1980.

Unpublished material and brochures  (all on file at Fort Kearny State Historical Park)

"Dedication:  Interpretive Center, Fort Kearny State Historical Park" (Brochure
      From opening ceremony) June 2, 1968.
 "Fort Kearney National Park Association." (Brochure of 1910 annual reunion of Old
      Settlers) .Aug 24-26, 1910.  Reprinted by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Mantor, Lyle E.  "Brief History of Fort Kearny."  (Brochure used for
      mailing and handout in connection with the 100 year anniversary of  Fort
      Kearney). September 1948.
"Souvenir Program, Fort Kearny Centennial."  (Program of events from given date).
     September 22, 1948.

Newspapers:
Kearney Daily Hub (Nebraska), 13 August 1948; 22 September 1948; 31 May 1968:1 August 1970.
Minden Courier (Nebraska),  20 December 1929; 7 July 1932; 24 March 1949.
Omaha World Herald Magazine, 19 September 1948.

Credits from photos:
 Part I and II illustrations are all from Nebraska State Historical Society with the exception of last picture the Fort Kearny site as illustrated  by Anton Schonborn in 1870 as seen from the northeast, which is from the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth Texas.  Photo credits from part III are from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

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Edited 3/14/2003