Promises made and broken! A town attacked at dawn! Thousands made homeless by war! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from 1842-73. All of the site’s 20 historic structures, its parade ground, and its five acres of restored tallgrass prairie bear witness to this era when the United States was forged from a young divided republic into a united and powerful transcontinental nation. It is the mission of the National Park Service at Fort Scott National Historic Site to preserve, protect and interpret nationally significant historic resources related to the opening of the West, the Permanent Indian Frontier, the Mexican-American War, Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War and the expansion of railroads.

This area preserves, protects and interprets the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War. The town of Nicodemus is symbolic of the pioneer spirit of African-Americans who dared to leave the only region they had been familiar with to seek personal freedom and the opportunity to develop their talents and capabilities.