Fort Bissell Museum

05/29/2026

PLEASE NOTE:
Tomorrow, May 30th, the museum will be closed as we host a special wedding celebration. To provide the couple and their guests with the privacy they deserve, the museum will not be open to the public. We will be open from Tuesday again with regular hours.
Thank you for your understanding.

05/28/2026

We have started publishing our blogs again - if you don't get the local newspapers, you can view the weekly Bissell Buzz here:

The Fort’s gates are open and the flags are waving in the brisk Kansas breezes every day again, which means we are officially open for Summer 2026. After an anxious wait, we finally received our De…

05/27/2026

Don't miss out - only here until June 21st when it will leave for Manhattan, KS

05/25/2026

We honor them, even those we don't know by name.

05/23/2026

Declaration 1776 Update:
We have added a fun element. Test your knowledge on 10 Citizenship Test Questions. We have 5 different tests available, from the Gilda Lehrman Institute for American History - who also owns the Declaration 1776 display.

05/22/2026

The display arrived today from Pony Express Museum in Marysville, after a stressful wait! We will be setting it up on Friday and be ready for viewing on Saturday, May 23. We will have special hours for this weekend only - after Memorial Weekend, we will revert to our regular summer hours.

05/15/2026

Saturday May 23 will be our first official day open for the public for the Summer 2026 season! We will have special hours for Memorial Weekend, as we will be hosting the special travelling exhibit called "Declaration 1776 - the Big Bang of Modern Democracy".
Our hours for Memorial Weekend:
Saturday May 23 - 9am to 2pm
Sunday May 24 - 12pm to 4pm
Monday May 25 (Memorial Day) - 12pm to 4pm
We hope to see you!!

05/02/2026

Our first school tour of 2026 - Phillipsburg Elementary visited on what started with a rather chilly morning.

03/27/2026

This summer we will have a new face at the Fort! We are excited to welcome EJ Hall as our NexGen intern for the summer of 2026!

12/23/2025

Merry Christmas to all our followers and supporters. May your travels be safe, your tables laden with good food and your hearts be filled with love and warmth as you make new memories to cherish.
Photo from Robin Clark's collection - A richly decorated Christmas tree fills the parlor, surrounded by toys, books, and carefully wrapped gifts. Taken in Worcester, Massachusetts, early 1900s

12/20/2025

UPDATE: Gary Conner and his team jumped right in and fixed this up on Saturday and cleaned up all the shingles that were blown right into the street.

Thursday's wind was wild. So wild, it took some shingles, actually a lot of them, off our already patched up roof of our Heritage Hall building. Anyone that can help us patch this up in the next few days? We are planning to reroof in the Spring of 2026.