First called Camp Pond Creek, Fort Wallace was established in 1865. The fort served as the headquarters for troops given the task of protecting travelers headed west along the Smoky Hill Trail to the Denver gold fields. Fort Wallace was the westernmost military outpost in Kansas, and from 1865 to 1878 served as one of the most active military posts in the Central Plains. Troops often spent time in the field, and the fort was several times attacked by Plains Indians striving to defend their lands and protect their way of life.

The fort was located about two miles to the southeast of this marker. Abandoned in 1882, nothing is now visible of the stone and wood buildings where once more than 300 men were stationed.
Just north of where the fort once stood, the old post cemetery still exists, enclosed by stone walls within the Wallace Township Cemetery. In 1867 U.S. soldiers erected a monument as a tribute to their comrades who had been killed in action and buried there. Although the soldiers' remains were later moved to Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, the monument still stands in their honor.

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Pond Creek Built at Pond Creek by Butterfield Overland Stage Co. 1866
Lumber was Hauled by Ox Team
From Colorado under Attack
of Indians Many Time
Note Old Bullet Holes in Wood
Donated By
Frank, Mayme, Kate & Jim Madigan
Ft. Wallace Memorial Association
Wallace, Kansas

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Created by local Ernest Edward Poe. Sculptures range in size and subject, including the buffalo that stands proud in front of the Fort Wallace Museum.

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William Averill Comstock was born on January 17, 1842, in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, in the town of Comstock names after his father. After family setbacks & the death of his mother, William, at age four was sent to live with his siter, who had married a judge in Wisconsin. By the age of 18, Comstock had decided to move further west & became part owner of a road ranch at Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska. There, working as an Indian trader, he maintained tow employees & $500 in property. In 1861, his address was listed as "Pike's Peak, Nebraska Territory". Most assuredly, it was during this time that Comstock learned some of the ways of his native customers, their languages, dress & customs that later would serve him well. He then scouted for a short period of time in Wyoming at Fort Halleck & later, in 1865, moved to Western Kansas, establishing his famous Roose Creek Ranch, eight miles west of Fort Wallace. Here with abundant water & meadows od fine prairie hay, he was able to start a business providing Fort Wallace with forage for horses & livestock. From December 23, 1865 until January 15, 1868 he served with distinction as a scout at Pond Creek Station & Fort Wallace & was known as the "Ace of Scout".
In 1867, Lt Col George A. Custer requested that Comstock join him on the Hancock Expedition. Comstock led Custer's famed Seventh Cavalry over 1,500 miles through Kansas, Nebraska & Colorado in pursued of evasive Cheyenne & Sioux Indian. Custer, would later , "No Indian knew the country more thoroughly than Comstock. He was perfectly familiar with every watercourse & strip of timber for hundreds of miles in either direction. He knew the dress & peculiarities of every tribe, & spoke their language of many of them...he was perfect in horsemanship, fearless in manner, a ? ? & a gentleman by instinct, as modest & unassuming as brave". Comstock's bravery & skill were firmly established when the Seventh Cavalry's wagon train was attacked on its return to Fort Wallace & when he found the route back to ? ? ? Cavalry Lt. Lymon S. Kidder's ill-fated command, on Beaver Creek, near current Edson, Kansas.
In 1868, Comstock was in a dispute with a man named Wyatt, over payment for wood contracting which had been ? by Wyatt to Comstock. The bitter dispute culminated with Wyatt dying from gunshot wounds. Comstock stood trail & was later declared "not guilty" by a judge in Hays. In May of 1868, General Phil Sheridan requested Comstock's help in joining an elite group of scouts & frontiersmen being assembled to assist in subduing the hostiles that had been committing raids on the Saline, Solomon, & Smoky Hill River Valleys. In August, 1868, Comstock was ordered by Lt. Fredrick Beecher to track down the Cheyenne & persuade their leaders to stop their attacks. Comstock was joined by another scout named Abner "Sharp" Grover.
What the annals of history tell from that time forward, remain a mystery. What is known is that on August 16, 1868, William Averill Comstock died at the young age of 26. It was said that Comstock & Grover visited a Cheyenne village & upon leaving were attacked with Grover being injured & Comstock Killed. Many theories exist including the belief held by many of Comstock's Rose Creek Ranch, Surgeon Theophilus H. Turner, with whom Comstock helped find fossil specimens wrote, "I know of no one whose death would have produced so wide-felt an impression. He certainly a great loss. "The remains of the "Ace of Scouts" William A. Comstock, lie on a windswept Western Kansas prairie, testament to the man, his bravery, & the mystery that surrounded him.

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