The trail then entered Council Grove, the most noted stopping place between the Missouri River and Santa Fe. Here the treaty with the Osage Indians was made on August 10, 1825, for a right of way of the trail across the Plains, and for years it was the last chance to obtain supplies. Its Main Street, on both sides of the Neosho River, marks the course of the trail.

There are several historic sites in Council Grove including Council Oak, where the treaty with the Osage Indian tribe was negotiated under in 1825. The tree itself was destroyed by a storm but the stump remains under a protective canopy. It is located on East Main Street.

Also located on East Main Street is the Post Office Oak, which once served as the unofficial post office for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail from 1825-1847. The oak tree that stood here had a hole in its base that was used by Trail travelers as a cache for mail. Only the trunk remains of this 300-year-old bur oak today. A stone building erected in 1864 next to the tree houses a museum, operated by the Morris County Historical Society.

The Neosho Crossing was an important river crossing on the Trail. The steep banks and high water sometimes made crossings difficult. A new Riverwalk Park marks the site located  US Highway 56 crosses the Neosho River.

The Conn/Stone/Pioneer Store located at 131 W. Main St. was built in 1858 and was considered to be one of the most important trading stores in Council Grove during the Santa Fe Trail era. Today it continues to stand though it is much altered from its original state and is still in use by a local business. 

The Hays House Restaurant, located at 112 West Main, was built by Seth Hayes, a grandson of Daniel Boone and cousin of Kit Carson, who came to Council Grove in 1847 to trade with the Kanza Indians. He originally built a log house here, out of which he traded. He opened the Hays House in 1857, which over the years has seen many uses, including a general store, hotel, saloon, and courthouse.  Among its early patrons were George A. Custer and Jesse James. Today the Hays House is famous as the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi River.

The Kaw Mission located 500 North Mission St. Was built during the winter of 1850-51 by the Methodist Episcopal Church and  served as a boarding school for Kanza boys until closing in 1854. It then became a school for white children when the Indians refused to send their children to the school.  Today, the Kaw Mission is one of the oldest buildings still standing in this part of Kansas and is operated by the Kansas State Historical Society as a museum.

Hermits Cave located on Belfry St. near Hays St. (2 blocks north of Main Street) was the temporary abode of an Italian religious mystic, Giovanni Maria Augustini, Born in 1801, this religious mystic lived here for a brief period in the spring of 1863. Later in 1863, he left Council Grove in the company of a wagon train, walking the five hundred miles on the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico. Other sources state that the “Hermit of the Trail” was a Franciscan friar, Matteo Boccalini, who erected a cross shortly after he arrived. Disheartened because the Jesuits interfered with his appointment as secretary to the Pope, he came to America and wandered from one Indian tribe to another teaching the gospel and administering the last sacrament to people on the trail.

The Terwilliger Home, located on 803 West Main, was built by Abraham and Mary Rawlinson in 1860-61. The stone home was the last house freighters passed going West when leaving Council Grove as late as 1863. From their home on the edge of the frontier, the Rawlinsons witnessed long trains of freight wagons loaded with goods, heading to or from Santa Fe. Today, it is one of the four oldest homes remaining alongside the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas and currently houses a  bakery café in the restored part of the house.

The Last Chance Store located West Main and Chatauqua Streets, at the west end of the Council Grove business district. Like its name warns, this store was once the "last chance" for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail to buy supplies for their journey to New Mexico. Built in 1857 by Tom Hill, the limestone structure is the oldest commercial building in Council Grove and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It once housed post office facilities and served as a government trading house and polling place. The privately owned building remains near its original state today.

The Council Grove Cemetery houses a number of graves belonging to historic Santa Fe Trail pioneers.   

 
From Council Grove for several miles there were two routes, one along the high divide to the north of Elm Creek, and the other passing up the valley of the  creek, the two roads uniting a mile or two southeast of the present town of Wilsey. The path then traveled north of the old Morehouse Ranch pastures to the Diamond Spring Ranch where the famous prairie fountain, called "The Diamond of the Plain," was a favorite stop on the Santa Fe Trail due to its high-quality water. A stage station and small settlement grew up here prior to the Civil War, but these were destroyed in a raid by Missouri bushwhackers. Diamond Spring continued to be a valuable water source and popular campsite as long as the Trail was active in this vicinity. The spring now rises in a concrete cistern and is piped to a nearby concrete stock tank on private property, though a historic marker designates the site.

The road continued westward to the Six Mile Creek Crossing and Stage Station. The site is on the road that runs south from US Highway 56 toward the town of Burdick, Kansas, just south of the bridge over Six Mile Creek. It was given its name because it was six miles from Diamond Spring. There are good trail ruts coming into the crossing site from the east, but the actual crossing is no longer visible. The stage station was built about 1863, after the Diamond Spring station was destroyed. It was in use until 1866 or 1867 and served as a ranch house until after the turn of the century. Today, only the basement walls and some debris from the upper stories can be seen, with some trail ruts nearby.

Continued Next Page

“The warmest description will scarce convey to the untraveled readers even a faint picture of this very beautiful grove…A crystal stream meanders over its pebbly bottom while the sun blazes upon the surrounding desert we sat…fished, bathed, read, sang, talked of home, and of the strange country we were about to visit, of the wild travel we had yet to encounter.”

— Matt Field, Council Grove, 1839

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