Extinct Towns of Morris County, Kansas

Six Mile Creek - After the stage station at Diamond Spring was destroyed by Missouri Bushwhackers n 1863, another station was needed along the Santa Fe Trail. The site was called Six Mile Crossing because it was six miles from Diamond Spring. When a post office was established here in February, 1863, Samuel Shaft, the proprietor of the station, was appointed the postmaster. In the fall of 1865, the station was sold to Frank and William Hartwell who had come west from New Hampshire. At this time, the station consisted of a low stone building with three rooms, a log building used as a store, a stone corral and a stable. The Hartwells didn't fair well that first year and plans were being made to move the Stage Line  Company headquarters to Junction City and bypass Six Mile Creek Station. After the Union Pacific Railroad pushed west to Junction City, a new eastern terminus for the Santa Fe Trail was established and the stage line stopped coming to Six Mile Creek on July 1, 1866. The Hartwells soon sold the station and moved to another stage station at the Cimarron Crossing, 30 miles west of Fort Dodge. The Six Mile Creek property was purchased by Charley Owens. The post office was discontinued in October, 1866, but it continued to remain open until 1868. In June of that year occurred the Cheyenne Outbreak of Morris County, and as the Cheyenne were moving eastward to make war on the Kanza Indians, they burned the buildings. Owens and his wife were fortunately absent at the time.  The station was never reopened. Later, a ranching operation was headquartered at this site and the station building served as the 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. 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.

Morris County Map, 1895

From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Kansas Postcards - If you're like we are and can't get enough of Kansas, take a virtual tour through our many Kansas Postcards. Each one of these is unique and, in many cases, we have only one available, so don't wait. To see them all, click HERE!