Metal-Fort Leavenworth Watchface TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 1-Nov-23 this trackable had survived for 7.2 years and had been moved by 61 cachers, for an average drop every 43 days, or 8.5 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

While I have lived in Texas for nearly 50 years, I was born and grew to an adult in Kansas.  When I tell someone of my origins, they almost always respond in one of two ways:  “I have been there but I don’t remember much about it” or “that 400 mile drive across the state on Interstate 70 is really boring.”  There is more to the state than that.  The wheat grown there feeds the world, and the people are nice, but I will focus on the sometimes lawless history of the state.

Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, but it was far from civilized.  From 1850 until 1900 the region was a frontier, and at the center of important events in US history:  there was the westward movement of pioneers from Europe and the eastern US and the subsequent conflicts with Native Americans; the Santa Fe Trail crossed the state and the Pony Express and the Oregon Trail passed through a corner; there was a border war because Kansas was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement, whereas neighboring Missouri and Arkansas were slave states; and finally the several new railroads were extending westward into hostile territory and furthermore some of the railheads were the destinations of cattle drives from Texas.  Each trackable in this series of metal travel bugs is named for towns with interesting histories, some of which have connections to my youth.

Fort Leavenworth it is the oldest active U.S. Army post west of the Mississippi River.  It was established in  1827 to protect the western frontier and to keep peace among the Indian tribes resettled into this area from the east.  For 30 years, Fort Leavenworth was the chief base of operations on the Indian frontier.   Throughout the Mexican-American War (1840s), Fort Leavenworth was the outfitting post for the Army of the West.  During these early years, soldiers from Fort Leavenworth protected wagon trains hauling supplies over the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, and other trails to most forts, posts and military camps of the West, some as far as the Pacific Ocean. When the Kansas Territory was organized in 1854, Governor Andrew Reeder set up executive offices on the post.

In 1858, an ordnance depot was established on Fort Leavenworth. In 1861 the arsenal was threatened by Confederate sympathizers and several companies of infantry were ordered to the Leavenworth Arsenal from Fort Kearny in Nebraska to protect it. The arsenal remained in operation throughout the U.S. Civil War and continued until 1872.

In 1866, the U.S. Congress authorized the formation of four black regiments—the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments and the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments. The10th Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth under the command of Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson.  Today, a monument stands at Fort Leavenworth in tribute to the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 9th and 10th Cavalry.  Between 1865 and 1891, the Army had more than 1,000 combat engagements with Apache, Modoc, Cheyenne, Ute, Nez Perce, Comanche, Kiowa, Kickapoo and other tribes.  The chief function Fort Leavenworth at present is a school for officers.

The connection to the clock face of this travel bug is the famous, but seemingly out-of-place, 86-foot clock tower built on the post in 1907.  It is topped by an octagonal copper dome clad with pre-patinated 16-ounce crimped copper and 20-ounce smooth copper, surrounded by four ornamental copper lamps.   In 2008 a piece of stone fell from the tower’s cornice, damaging the classroom building below.  An evaluation of the structure revealed that the dome, lamps, and masonry needed extensive repair and replacement.  By the time this work was finished, it was determined that the clock mechanism was worn and shortly a gear-box for two of the faces failed.  This prompted a conversion to a digital unit, but the exterior appearance of the clock was unchanged.