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History of the Museum and the
Fort Wallace Memorial Association
It all started because of a cemetery.

The original cemetery commissioned for use by Fort Wallace in the 1860s was slowly deteriorating.  The limestone walls were crumbling, headstones were falling over, and the eagle that was once proudly perched atop the cenotaph had mysteriously disappeared.  A concerned group of citizens realized that if they didn't do something to preserve this vital piece of local, state, and national history, no one would. And so the Fort Wallace Memorial Association was born in 1925.  
 
In just a few years the limestone walls were erected again, and the cemetery received newly repainted headstones, complete with names, dates and causes of death where known.  The Association then turned their attention to another need...the need to have a museum in which to display all the artifacts that had been collected throughout the years.

The first museum was set up in the existing (but no longer used) Wallace County Bank.  Later, in 1961, a limestone museum was erected on land that had been recently donated to the Association by Cecil and Lois Pearce.  The Madigan family (for their story, see History) donated the original Pond Creek Stage Station and the Association acquired the Weskan Railroad Depot.  Both buildings were relocated to where they sit now, on the west end of the museum.  
     
Over 40 years later, in 2002, the Fort Wallace Museum received funds from the Kansas Department of Transportation to add on public restrooms and additional funds were petitioned for (and received) to build an outbuilding to house transportation exhibits from the Sunderland Foundation.  Now, in the year 2005, the Fort Wallace Museum proudly maintains 3 separate buildings housing exhibits, as well as 2 additional buildings used for storage and the original Fort Wallace Cemetery.  We now boast over 3500 artifacts and pictures...and we're still growing.



Fort Wallace Museum
Highway 40, Box 53
Wallace, KS 67761
(785) 891-3564		 Site Created and Maintained by
Museum Staff and Volunteers
Contact us at:
museum@ftwallace.com		 Now Open for the Summer Season!
9 am-5 pm  Monday-Saturday
1 am-5 pm  Sunday
*Note: All times Mountain Time*