Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, on the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 101,733 acres (41,170 ha) in Geary and Riley counties. The portion of the fort that contains housing development is part of the Fort Riley census-designated place, with a residential population of 7,761 as of the 2010 census. The fort has a daytime population of nearly 25,000. The ZIP Code is 66442.
Namesake
Fort Riley is named in honor of Major General Bennet C. Riley, who led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. The fort was established in 1853 as a military post to protect the movement of people and trade over the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails. In the years after the Civil War, Fort Riley served as a major United States Cavalry post and school for cavalry tactics and practice. The post was a base for skirmishes with Native Americans after the Civil War ended in 1865, during which time George A. Custer was stationed at the fort.
United States Cavalry School
In 1887, Fort Riley became the site of the United States Cavalry School. The famous all-black 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, the soldiers of which were called "Buffalo Soldiers", were stationed at Fort Riley at various times in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During World War I, the fort was home to 50,000 soldiers, and it is sometimes identified as ground zero for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which its soldiers were said to have spread all over the world. Since the end of World War II, various infantry divisions have been assigned there. Most notably, from 1970 to 1996 the post was home to the famed 1st Infantry Division, also called "Big Red One". Between 1999–2006, the post was headquarters to the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and known as "America's Warfighting Center". In August 2006, the Big Red One relocated its headquarters to Fort Riley from Leighton Barracks, Germany.
Camp Whitside is named in honor of Brigadier General Samuel M. Whitside, who served as commander of Company B, 6th Cavalry Regiment, at Fort Riley, between the years of 1871 and 1874.
Stationed units
1st Infantry Division
Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Infantry Division
1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
1st Infantry Division Artillery (DIVARTY) Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade
Garrison
97th Military Police Battalion
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Garrison
Partners
10th Air Support Operations Squadron, USAF
407th Army Field Support Brigade
902nd Military Intelligence Group
Det. 2, 3d Weather Squadron, USAF
Irwin Army Community Hospital
Warrior Transition Battalion
1st Signal Command, inactivated in 1969
630th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) 774th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) 923rd Contracting Battalion 121st Signal Battalion, inactivated 1995 Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Fort Riley Resident Agency
History
Origins
The early history of Fort Riley is closely tied to the movement of people and trade along the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. These routes, a result of then-popular United States doctrine of "manifest destiny" in the middle of the 19th century, prompted increased American military presence for the protection of American interests in this largely unsettled territory. During the 1850s, a number of military posts were established at strategic points to provide protection along these arteries of emigration and commerce.
In the fall of 1852, a surveying party under the command of Captain Robert H. Chilton, 1st U.S. Dragoons, selected the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers as a site for one of these forts. This location, approved by the War Department in January 1853, offered an advantageous location from which to organize, train and equip troops in protecting the overland trails.
Surveyors believed the location near the center of the United States and named the site, Camp Center. During the late spring, three companies of the 6th Infantry occupied the camp and began construction of temporary quarters.
On June 27, 1853, Camp Center became Fort Riley — named in honor of Maj. Gen. Bennet C. Riley, who had led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail in 1829. The "fort" took shape around a broad plain that overlooked the Kansas River valley.