Fort Riley
United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas
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 Fort consists of six functional areas, including the Main Post, Camp Funston, Marshall Army Airfield (MAAF), Camp Whitside, Camp Forsyth, and Custer Hill. The portion of the fort that contains housing development is part of the Fort Riley census-designated place, with a residential population of 9,230 as of the 2020 census. The ZIP Code is 66442.
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
Detachment 2, 3d Weather Squadron, USAF
Danger Voice Signal University
Irwin Army Community Hospital
Warrior Transition Battalion
79th Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal)
923rd Contracting Battalion
Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Fort Riley Resident Agency
Inactivated:
1st Signal Command, inactivated in 1969
121st Signal Battalion, inactivated 1995
History
Origins
The early history of Fort Riley is closely tied to the movement of people and trade along the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail. These routes, a result of the 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. In the 1850s, the United States established several military posts at strategic points to safeguard these emigration and commerce routes.
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 to protect the overland trails.
“Fort Riley” enters the record as united States Army installation located in North Central Kansas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fort, Riley and United can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Fort Riley” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fort, Riley and United provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1438701. VIAF identifies the subject as 154821776. The Library of Congress control number is n84122908. Authority coordinates are 39.100, -96.817. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1969, 1995 and 1852.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Fort Riley”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Fort Riley primary sources, Fort Riley archive and Fort research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fort Riley”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Fort Riley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.