The Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas

The Santa Fe Trail, in the days of its greatest fame, extended from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, the capital city of the province of New Mexico. Between these points there were practically no settlements of white people, and, indeed, few permanent Indian towns. The City of Santa Fe was founded about 1610, the exact date being unknown. In the prosperous days of the Santa Fe trade, it contained about three thousand inhabitants.

The first successful venture to Santa Fe over the Santa Fe Trail was made by Captain William Becknell. With him, were four trusted companions, who left Arrow Rock, on the Missouri River, near Franklin, Missouri on September 1, 1821.

On November 13th they met a troop of Mexican soldiers, who prevailed upon them to travel with them to Santa Fe. Upon their arrival, they received a friendly reception and their goods sold at such rates as to astonish the Missourians, proving for a very successful journey. The party set out on the return journey on the December 13th and reached home in 48 days.

This adventure may be said to have established the Santa Fe trade, and Captain Becknell has justly been called the father of the Santa Fe Trail.

By the year 1825 the Santa Fe trade had assumed sufficient proportions to attract the attention of Congress. There was also a growing apprehension of the wild Indians of the Plains. While there had been no trader killed on the Trail and no robberies of enough importance to report, there was a gathering of Indians along the way, and it was feared that outrages would be committed. Congress, in the winter of 1824-25, passed a bill authorizing the President to have the Santa Fe Trail marked from Missouri to the frontiers of New Mexico. The Commissioners appointed to carry that act into effect were enjoined to secure the consent of the Indians whose lands were infringed, to the survey and marking of the road. For that purpose a treaty was entered into, at Council Grove, with the Osage and Kanza Indians on the August 11, 1825.

After the treaties were negotiated, Congress sent out surveyors to mark the trail in 1825, but was not completed until 1827.

In Kansas the trail traveled the following path:

Johnson County

The different Missouri River branches of the trail, whether from old Franklin, Fort Osage, Independence, Westport, or Kansas City, came together in the northeast part of Johnson County, and by one common course passed out of the county near its southwest corner. An early course of the road entered the county and state just nine miles due south of the mouth of the Kansas River and east of the now extinct village of Glenn.

The line from Westport passed near the old Shawnee Methodist Mission just west of the present-day State Line Road in what is now Fairway, Kansas. The remains of three original brick mission buildings are now a Kansas State Historic Site and open as a museum.

Santa Fe Trail, Johnson County and Kansas City area,

courtesy National Park Service.

The Shawnee Methodist Mission continues to stand in

Fairway, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, photo

courtesy Wikipedia

Trail ruts are still visible to the north of these buildings. The blacksmith shop of the mission was reportedly used by Trail travelers, many of whom mention the mission and the Shawnee Indians. The mission is located at 3403 West 53^rd in Fairway, Kansas.

A bit further west is Harmon Park in present-day Prairie Village, Kansas, over which the trail crossed and trail ruts are still visible. The four acre city park, located at 7727 Delmar in Prairie Village, displays an exhibit that interprets the visible trail ruts.

From near Lenexa the trails passed over one route southwest through Olathe, where two old sites can still be seen.

The Mahaffie Farmstead is located on the north edge of the city of Olathe and served as a stage station on the road from Westport. Dinners were served in the basement of the two-story native limestone house that was constructed in 1865. It is the only known Santa Fe Trail station that is open to the public. Located at 1100 Kansas City Road in Olathe.

Lone Elm Campground is located three miles south of Olathe on Lone Elm Road. On the main branch of the Santa Fe Trail, this was the site of a spring (now enclosed in a small well) and excellent grazing for livestock. The spring was a major campsite for Trail travelers. As time progressed, the "Elm Grove" was cut down by the travelers for firewood, resulting in the name "Lone Elm." Eventually the last tree was also cut down but the name endured.

The Mahaffie Farmstead in Olathe Kansas was built in 1865, Kathy Weiser, April, 2009.

The trail then passed through Gardner where it separated from the Oregon Trail separated after following the same route from Missouri. The site is located approximately two miles west of Gardener and .25 mile to the north and designated with a historical marker. In the 1840s, a sign that said "Road to Oregon" was erected at this site.

The trail then crossed Bull Creek and into Douglas County.

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