Fort Zarah.—This fort was located on the left bank of Walnut creek, about 2 miles from its mouth, and about 4 miles east of the present city of Great Bend, the county seat of Barton county. It was established on Sept. 6, 1864, by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, and was named for his son, Maj. H. Zarah Curtis, who was killed at the Baxter Springs massacre while serving on the staff of Gen. Blunt. The fort was built of sandstone, taken from the bluffs about 3 miles distant. It was 116 feet long, with an average width of 50 feet, and with the exception of 24 feet of the east end was two stories high. Its original cost was $100,000. On Sept. 30, 1868, by order of President Andrew Johnson, the Fort Zarah military reservation was established, and it was surveyed the same year. It contained about 3,700 acres and extended from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad north to the hills. The fort was dismantled in Dec., 1869, and an act of Congress, approved Feb. 24, 1871, provided for the survey and sale of the reservation. On Aug. 11, of that year, the surveyor-general was instructed to extend the lines of the public surveys over the same. The lands were then appraised at from $3 to $10 an acre, and in July, 1874, were offered at public sale at Salina, but less than 50 acres were sold at that time, and the remainder became subject to private entry at the appraised value. Smyth, in his "Heart of the New Kansas," says: "After the abandonment of the fort it became a den of thieves and general rendezvous for bats and marauders. These occupied it day and night by turns—the former hiding by day, the latter by night." The stone used in the construction of the fort was gradually appropriated by the settlers in the vicinity, and the "bats and marauders" were finally rendered homeless.