Qualla: Fort Riley

Fort Riley: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jack Delano, Public domain. The morning of March 11, 1918, began like any other at Camp Funston. Army cook Albert Gitchell reported to the infirmary before breakfast with a fever, a sore throat, and a headache. By noon, 107 soldiers exhibited identical symptoms. Within days, 522 men were down. The outbreak at Fort Riley's Camp Funston was later hypothesized to be the starting point of the Spanish flu pandemic, which would kill an estimated 50 million people worldwide. That a global catastrophe may have begun at a cavalry training post in central Kansas speaks to Fort Riley's strange, outsized role in American history. Established in 1853 to guard the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, the fort has touched nearly every major chapter of the nation's story -- from Bleeding Kansas to the Indian Wars, from the birth of the 7th Cavalry to the deployment of the 1st Infantry Division.

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Image: Jack Delano | Public domain

Fort Riley: Camp Center and the Bleeding of Kansas

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David von Riesen, Public domain. In the fall of 1852, Captain Robert H. Chilton of the 1st U.S. Dragoons selected the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers as the site for a new military post. Surveyors named it Camp Center, believing it sat near the geographic center of the United States. The War Dep...

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Image: David von Riesen | Public domain

Fort Riley: Custer Takes the 7th

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer is Mathew Brady (died 1896) and his field staff, Public domain. The Civil War's end in 1865 brought Fort Riley a new mission: protecting the railroad lines being laid across the Kansas prairie. In the summer of 1866, the 7th Cavalry Regiment mustered in at the fort, and in December, Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer arrived to take...

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Image: Photographer is Mathew Brady (died 1896) and his field staff | Public domain

Fort Riley: The Big Red One

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The U.S. Army, Public domain. Fort Riley's modern identity is inseparable from the 1st Infantry Division, known as the Big Red One for its distinctive shoulder patch. The division was activated during World War I and has called Riley home at various points throughout its history. During World War II, approxim...

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Image: The U.S. Army | Public domain

Fort Riley: Legacies Across the Flint Hills

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. Fort Riley's 101,733 acres span Geary and Riley counties in the Flint Hills of north-central Kansas, between the cities of Junction City and Manhattan. The Kansas River -- the Kaw -- runs along its northern boundary. The post encompasses six functional areas: Main Post, Camp Funs...

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Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain