Kansas was officially opened to white settlers in 1854, and settlers, lured by promises of cheap land and easy wealth, rushed to the area. As settlements grew behind the westward movement of the frontier line, the federal government built roads and forts to accommodate the migration and to protect and assist the travelers along the trails that led southwest to Santa Fe and Denver, and northwest to Salt Lake City and The Dalles in Oregon. Fort Riley, Kansas, built on the Santa Fe Trail near the confluence of the Kansas and Republican Rivers in 1855, was one of those forts.