Fort Hays State University - Reveille Yearbook (Hays, KS)

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Fort Hays Kansas Normal School ]HE history of the Fort Hays Kansas Normal School, cov- ering fourteen years, has not always been an uninter- rupted progress. Not always has the outlook for our future been so well assured as now. We are harvesting where brave pioneers, facing difficulties that at times seemed unsurmountable, have sown. The annals of the past contain the names of many men who have written the stirring history on these Western Kansas plains. Their names and Romances are the priceless traditions of this Normal School. While the history of the Fort Hays Kansas Normal School begins with the legislative act of February 1901, which established the school, there are chapters of pre-founding history which closely relates to the succeeding events. Old Fort Hays was one of the line of military posts established soon after the Civil war to protect construction camps of the Union Pacific railroad company and the pioneers who had pushed their way westward. It w r as lo- cated on Big Creek about fifteen miles southeast of the present reservation. In June, 18(57 a disastrous flood destroyed the post. A new site was then selected on higher ground lying south of Big Creek, about half a mile south of the present city of Hays. The reservation included about 7,(500 acres ly- ing along the course of the creek. The city of Hays was founded in 18(57 and its industrial and social interests were intimately bound up with the life of the fort. After the Fort Hays military post was abandoned in 1889 various plans were suggested for the disposition of the land comprising the reservation. Homesteaders realized its value and were anxious to file on it, but the far- 17