The site of Fort Dodge in the U.S. state of Kansas was originally an old campground for wagons traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, just west of the western junction of the Wet and Dry Routes and near the middle or Cimarron Cutoff.

On March 23, 1865, Major General Grenville M. Dodge, who commanded the 11th and 16th Kansas Cavalry Regiments, wrote to Colonel James Hobart Ford to propose establishing a new military post west of Fort Larned.

Corporal Leander Herron received the Medal of Honor for heroism in action about 12 miles from Fort Dodge on September 2 and 3, 1868.

These generally are believed to have been sod houses for the officers and dugouts for the enlisted men cut into the bank along the Arkansas River, along the south side of the post.

However, Sean Creevey, a professor at Dodge City Community College, claimed that all the first housing consisted of "dugouts with canvas roofs dug into the bank of the Arkansas River."

Apparently in its later years only about a dozen men occupied it and their main duty was to provide escorts to protect mail passing through the area.