Some ruins are a little more obvious than others. If you see half of a crumbling house, you can probably guess it was once a whole house. But what about those ruins you can’t quite put your finger on? If you’ve ever driven past a mysterious group of stones, maybe you just witnessed a hidden chunk of our history Of course, there’s leftover pieces from all sorts of Kansas settlements, but have you ever seen these strange ruins?

Out in western Kansas, there's a town called Scott City with lots of history that they'll gladly tell you about.
Wikimedia Commons
It's near plenty of historic sites, but there's one in particular that doesn't look like much when you take your first look.
At 902 W 5th Street, you'll find the El Quartelejo Museum and all the history it holds within.
El Quartelejo Museum Facebook
They cover Monument Rocks, the Battle of Punished Woman's Fork, and Battle Canyon too. But what's that outside?

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Built sometime around the mid to late-1600s, this plot looks a little odd to most.
Matt Peeples/Flickr
Can you tell what it once was? This square plot of land was once El Quartelejo (Cuartelejo) and was built by either early Pueblo Indians from New Mexico, or Taos and Picuris Pueblo groups.
Whichever group of Pueblo Indians they happened to be, they built the structures that were later occupied occasionally by the French and Spanish as an outpost.
Plazak/Wikimedia Commons
There weren't any Pueblo Indians living here by 1706. Around 1763, there wasn't much left here except for a mound and a few irrigation ditches.
It wasn't recovered by archaeologists until 1898, a good time later.
Matt Peeples/Flickr
Now, it's an awesome part of Lake Scott State Park, having been a National Historical Landmark since 1964. It's been listed as "at risk" since 2004, due to weather eroding the structure slowly over time.

Have you ever taken a look at El Quartelejo (El Cuartelejo) or any other Kansas ruin before? Tell us about it in the comments! While you’re out enjoying our history, why not check out some of the 25 Statues of Liberty hiding around Kansas?

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