A fortification of the
United States in
Geary county, Kan., on the Union Pacific Railroad, 4 miles northwest of
Junction City, the county seat.
A military post was established here in 1853, and, under the name of Camp Centre, because it was the geographical centre of the
United States, was garrisoned in 1855.
Later in the same year the name was changed to its present one in honor of
Gen. B. C. Riley.
In 1887, under an act of Congress, this army post was entirely transformed, enlarged, and equipped to accommodate a permanent school of instruction in drill and practice for the cavalry and light artillery service of the
United States.
The post now occupies 21,000 acres, and on a conspicuous site is a monument to the memory of the officers and men killed in the battles of
Wounded Knee and Drexel Mission, in
South Dakota, in 1890, culminations of the Messiah craze.