SUBMITTED

The sixth program in a series of events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Fort Hays in its present location will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 17, 2017 at Historic Fort Hays. This program will focus on the archeology of Ellis County. Dr. Robert Hoard, State Archeologist of Kansas, will talk about the general prehistory of Ellis County, the Kraus site, and the dugout attributed to Billy Dixon. Dr. Tim Weston, Historic Preservation Office Archeologist, will talk about excavations at Historic Fort Hays.

Archeological investigations at Historic Fort Hays have taken place over decades in the form of many projects, some large and some small. Major excavations began in 1966 under the direction of the Kansas Historical Society and continued until 1970. Several historic structures were excavated as part of the effort to develop content for the fort’s new museum and public programming efforts. Later smaller-scale projects focused on excavations at the Well House south of the Hospital, at the Blockhouse, at the location of the original Flagpole, and on an archeological survey of the portion of the historic fort located beneath the Hays Municipal Golf Course.

This program will summarize those investigations as well as more recent investigations of the Kraus site and the dugout attributed to Billy Dixon. Display cases containing a selection of the artifacts recovered during the archeological work will be available.

This program is free and open to the public.

For more information contact Fort Hays State Historic Site, 1472 Highway 183 Alt. at 785-625-6812 or [email protected].