How do you visit a point of interest on a military base?

June 9, 2019 1:11 PM

While visiting Kansas City, Google maps suggested I visit the spot where the Santa Fe and Oregon trails meet. The only problem? It’s on the Fort Leavenworth military base. How would a civilian check it out? I can’t find any info about how to visit it online.

I drove by it and the military police thought it was hilarious that Google Maps sent me there but wouldn’t let me on base without active member ID.

posted by mathowie to Travel & Transportation around Leavenworth, KS (4 answers total)

Best answer: The Fort Leavenworth website has instructions for visitors.

If you do not have an ID card listed on the Department of Defense (DoD) issued ID cards website, you must stop by the VCC at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and 4th Street. Follow directional signs to the center's parking lot.

At the VCC, reception clerks will verify that the vehicle driver has a valid license, registration and proof of insurance and that all passengers, 16 and over, have either a driver's license or other form of photo ID. Following a routine background check, visitors will receive a Temporary Pass and instructions allowing them to enter the installation.

posted by zamboni at 1:24 PM on June 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: visitor information

I'm kind of surprised the MP turns you away. Website sounds like they're pretty visitor-friendly. Website mentions of visitor check-in center.

You can try calling the base during business hours, perhaps asking to speak with the public relations officer, or better yet someone who would do tours. Tours of the facility, not tours of duty
posted by Jacen at 1:25 PM on June 9, 2019

Response by poster: Ah, I think I’m out of luck because it’s a Sunday but good to know for my next visit. Thanks all!
posted by mathowie at 1:29 PM on June 9, 2019

In addition, though this may seem obvious: make sure you don't have anything that could be classed as contraband in your vehicle. I once impulsively stopped on a road trip to visit an EROS installation, and while it was super-neat and definitely worth it, the security guard asked some required questions and then kindly but firmly bade me to remove the bottles of wine/spirits I was transporting with me as gifts for friends, because alcohol was not permitted on the property. (This was clearly a common issue for visitors, because he had an established unofficial protocol to suggest: just to drive a few clicks back down the road and hide said contraband in a snowbank outside an abandoned graveyard. The Scotch was still there afterwards, and the, uh, other spirits were fine with it, as far as I could tell.)
posted by halation at 2:04 PM on June 9, 2019 [12 favorites]