Cimarron River History and Information

History Along the Cimarron River

Extending 698 miles across New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas, its headwaters flow from Johnson Mesa west of Folsom in northeastern New Mexico. The river enters the Oklahoma Panhandle near Kenton, and bends northward through the southeastern corner of Colorado, where it splits into two branches before entering and the southwestern corner of Kansas. The riverbed in this area is dry except during spring and early summer or during occasional floods. The north fork enters Morton County flowing through the southeast corner of Stanton County and entering Grant County.

The south fork crosses Morton County and the northwest corner of Stevens and also enters Grant County, where the two branches unite. The combined Cimarron then flows in a southeast direction through Seward County and the extreme southwest corner of Meade County into Oklahoma.

The Cimarron River crosses New Mexico, Oklahoma,

Colorado, and Kansas.

A few miles below the Kansas line the stream makes a turn, flows east about 25 miles, again re-enters Kansas in Clark County, flowing across the southeast corner and leaving the state from the southwest corner of Comanche County. In Oklahoma, the the dry riverbed once again becomes an active stream and empties into the Arkansas River at the Keystone Reservoir above Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The river's name comes from the early Spanish name, Río de los Carneros Cimarrón, meaning River of the Wild Sheep. Early American explorers also called it the Red Fork of the Arkansas because of the water's red color, received from contact with the red clay along its banks. Early map makers and explorers often confused the Cimarron River with the Salt Fork Arkansas River. One of the earliest mentions of the Cimarron River was in 1807 by Zebulon Pike, who called it the "Grand Saline" or "Newsewtonga."

One branch of the Santa Fe Trail, variously called the Cimarron Route, the Cimarron Cutoff, and the Middle Crossing (of the Arkansas River), ran from Dodge City, Kansas to Fort Union, New Mexico, where it rejoined the northern Mountain Branch route to continue on to Santa Fe. Though this route was more direct, crossing the great plains, it was dry, with poor grass, little wildlife, and fraught by Indian attacks. In 1831, Comanche Indians killed Jedediah Smith, the famous hunter, trapper, and explorer on the Santa Fe Trail near the Cimarron River and his body was never recovered.

There are a number of historic sites along the Cimarron River including Wagon Bed Springs in Grant County; Point of Rocks, a Santa Fe Trail lookout for both Indians and traders; and the Cimarron National Grassland in Morton and Stevens Counties of Kansas, which offers an abundance of prairie flowers, wildlife, and 23 miles of the Santa Fe Trail.

In Oklahoma, Cold Spring and Autograph Rock can be found north of Boise City; Camp Nichols, an old fort founded by Kit Carson in 1865, once stood along the route northwest of Wheeless, and the river flows along the southern edges of Black Mesa, the highest point in that state.

Fording the Cimarron River in Grant County, Kansas, 1914.

Atop Johnson Mesa in New Mexico, this lonely barn sits silent,

Kathy Weiser, September, 2008.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

As the river enters New Mexico, it is known as the Dry Cimarron River, in contrast to a wetter Cimarron River located further west. The Dry Cimarron River is not completely dry but sometimes its water disappears entirely under the sand in the river bed and the road that follows it is designated as the Dry Cimarron National Scenic Byway. It snakes its way past the Capulin Volcano National Monument, to Folsom and Johnson Mesa.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated May, 2010.

Point of Rocks in the Cimarron National Grassland in Morton County was once a lookout point on the Santa Fe Trail Indians and traders. Photo courtesy Cimarron National Grassland.

Amazingly, when we traveled this route last time the "Dry Cimarron"

River, actually was flowing with water, Kathy Weiser, September, 2008.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Old West Books - Legends of America and the Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of Old West books for our frontier enthusiasts. For many of these, we have only one available. To see this varied collection, click HERE!