[4] It was built on the site of Fort Harker, a United States Army post that housed infantry and cavalry troops involved in the Indian Wars from 1867 to 1872.

For millennia, the Great Plains of North America were inhabited by nomadic Native Americans.

From the 16th to 18th centuries, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America.

In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase.

[6] Its purpose was to protect construction of the Union Pacific railroad from Native American raids.

As a result, on November 17, 1866, the Army ordered the construction of a new fort approximately three-quarters mile east of the current location.

[6] For the next five years, Fort Harker became one of the most important military stations west of the Missouri River.

[cite the Guardhouse national register nomination] It used 700 soldiers and twice as many civilian employees, as well as 400 horses and mules.

[6] Over the coming years, the threat of Native American raids in the region diminished as territory was secured and railroad construction moved west.

No longer of geographic significance, Fort Harker was abandoned on April 2, 1872[5] and the war department ordered it to be closed shortly thereafter.

[8] In the winter of 1872-1873, Fort Harker briefly stationed troops once more[5][9] before being deserted one final time.

In June 1880, the Senate passed bill S.194, an act disposing Fort Harker Military Reservation of public ownership and giving the 10,240 acre tract of land to the Interior Department for sale.

[9] In summer of 1885, a seventeen-member group of capitalists based in Ohio led by Ross Mitchell (president), F.M.

Bookwalter (vice president), and John H. Thomas (treasurer) purchased 4,740 acres of the land, including Fort Harker and its buildings, for $71,000 from Col.

Another in July 1887 declared it to be the only town in the state with railroads running north, south, east, and west and also claimed to have seven factories, thirteen stores, and a hotel.

"[12] The journal also describes giant potatoes, cabbage leaves that "are used for circus tents," jack rabbits that "grow as large as horses," and pea pods that "are used as ferry boats on the Arkansas river.

"[12] It also claims "A man planted a turnip one mile from the railroad last summer and the company sued him for obstructing the track before the middle of July."

Additionally, the journal says that "North of Kanopolis are several lakes of strained honey, and we also often have showers of rosewater and cologne in the early spring.

This settlement of Western Kansas is restoring Eden to its primitive glory and men to their first estate.

An editorial in a January 1887 paper from the Leavenworth Times calls Kanopolis a "buffalo wallow," a "scheme," and a "fraud" from an "eastern syndicate".

[12] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.20 square miles (3.11 km2), all land.

[16] The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.