Fort Hays.—This post was established on Oct. 11, 1865, and was first named Fort Fletcher, in honor of ex-Gov. Fletcher of Missouri. It was located on Big creek, about 14 miles southeast of the present Hays City, and continued to be known as Fort Fletcher until Nov. 17, 1866, when the name was changed to Fort Hays, for Gen. Isaac G. Hays, who was killed at the battle of the Wilderness. In the summer of 1867 the post was flooded by an overflow of Big creek, and Gen. Gibbs, then a major in the Seventh United States cavalry, selected a new site by order of Gen. Hancock. The new location was about three-fourths of a mile from Hays City, where a reservation of 7,500 acres in the form of an irregular triangle was laid out and substantial buildings were erected. Gen. Sheridan's headquarters were at Fort Hays at the time of the Black Kettle raid in 1868. By the act of March 1, 1876, the Kansas legislature ceded to the United States jurisdiction over the reservation, which continued to be used as a military post until June 1, 1889. Early in that year it became known that the fort was to be abandoned, and the Kansas legislature adopted a resolution asking Congress to donate the site to the state for a soldiers' home. No action was taken by Congress on the resolution, and in 1895 the legislature again asked that the reservation be donated to the state as a location for a branch of the state agricultural college, a branch of the state normal school, and a public park. Again no action was taken, and in 1899 a subordinate of the interior department declared the land opened for settlement, but in March, 1900, the Kansas delegation in Congress managed to secure the land and buildings for educational purposes. A branch of the state normal school is now established there, and the agricultural college maintains an experiment station on the reservation.