From humble beginnings to global learning by BRIAN GRIBBEN photography by FHSU ARCHIVES
F
rom its earliest incarnation, established at the dawn of the 20th century to train the one-room schoolhouse teachers of central and western Kansas, to a state comprehensive university with a global presence, Fort Hays State University’s facilities and academic programs have changed dramatically. Yet, for even the most “experienced” Tiger alumnus, familiar landmarks like Gross Memorial Coliseum, Malloy Hall, and others (even off-campus haunts like the Brass Rail) still conjure memories and offer touchstones to the past. However, Fort Hays State’s earliest history, that which escapes living memory, proves less palpable. As the university nears its 120th anniversary, reflecting on its founding and importance to the community that supported it can bring FHSU’s formative years to light. In its first inception, the university’s precursor was located to the south of the present campus on part of the
FORT HAYS STATE UNIVERSITY
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decommissioned military reservation that in 1867 had been home to the university’s namesake. By the 1880s, the subjugation of indigenous peoples had rendered Fort Hays, like many of the outposts that dotted the Great Plains, redundant. The War Department deactivated the installation on April 7, 1889. Officially abandoned by November, the reservation – which spanned 7,500 acres and bordered to the north by Big Creek – became the property of the Department of Interior. Almost a decade earlier, Hays City land developer Martin Allen envisioned that the reservation would one day be home to an agricultural school and experiment station, going so far as to secure passage of an 1881 resolution in the state legislature stating as much. At the time, Allen’s vision fell short, and plans for the land at the local, state, and federal levels never reached fruition. This changed in
