The Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas

Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas - Page 4

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The trail continued into Marion County a mile and a quarter south of the northeast corner of the county to Lost Spring, a valuable source of water for trail travelers. It was also used as a trading ranch, a stage station and a campground. The spring that still flows today is located 2.3 miles west of the town of Lost Springs on the north side of a paved road. Wagon ruts are visible near the crossing of the small creek on the south side of the paved road.

Santa Fe Trail through Marion, McPherson, and Rice

Counties, courtesy National Park Service.

From here the road passed in a westerly direction near the sites of the present towns of Ramona and Tampa, dropping southwesterly to the Cottonwood, Creek Crossing about one mile west of the present-day town of Durham. This site was a major campsite on the Santa Fe Trail, but was widely known as a difficult crossing because of the steep banks and the occasional high water. There were several instances where wagon trains were caught in blizzards and both livestock and human lives were lost. This was also the site of a stage station and the largest trading ranch west of Council Grove. Today, nothing remains of the crossing or the ranch, but a few wagon ruts may still be seen northeast of Cottonwood Creek and there is an outstanding segment of ruts southwest of this stream.

The trail continued southwest, it passed out of the county at a point directly east of the present town of Canton in McPherson County.

McPherson County

The trail entered the county midway of its eastern boundary, just east of Canton and bore slightly southwest. East of Canton near the center of the Jones Cemetery is a black marble gravestone belonging to Ed Miller who, according to the inscription, was killed by the Cheyenne Indians in 1864. He is thought to have been the last white man killed by Indians in this part of Kansas. Back-to-back with the gravestone is a stone Santa Fe Trail marker placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1906 to mark the Santa Fe Trail.

The trail continued crossing Running Turkey Springs and Dry Turkey Creek. In 1855, Charles O. Fuller established a ranch adjacent to the Big Turkey Crossing about five miles south of the present-day city of McPherson. The location was where United States commissioners, while surveying the trail, met the chiefs of the Kanza Indians in council on August 16, 1825. A monument to commemorate the event has been erected near the spot. Fuller’s Ranch provided accommodations for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail and was probably the first white settlement in McPherson County. A post office named Big Turkey was located in the bend of the creek.

The route continued, passing out of the county a few miles south of the town of Windom.

Rice County

Little Arkansas River, courtesy U.S. Department of Interior.

Through Rice County the trail passed almost east and west through the center. It crossed the Little Arkansas River less than a mile into the county and was a major point of interest on the Santa Fe Trail. Still visible when the water is low are the stones that were laid in the river bed for the wagons to cross on while fording the stream.

About 1000 feet south of the crossing, on the west side of the river, was a 200 x 300 foot stone corral that provided accommodations and protection for travelers. The stone enclosure, having walls 8 feet high and 30 inches thick, also included a trading post. Military troops were stationed here in 1865 and 1867. Unfortunately, all signs of the corral are gone today but “depressions” can still be seen along the river where soldiers digging dugouts often lived while protecting the trail.

The path then ran west, passing less than a mile south of the present city of Lyons and crossing Jarvis (Chavez) Creek west of the Little Arkansas River, along Jarvis Creek in Rice County. The site is important because Antonio Jose Chavez, a Hispanic trader, was murdered here in 1843. The murder became an international incident, with ramifications in Washington, D.C. and Mexico City.

Travelers then crossed Cow Creek about four miles west of present-day Lyons. This was an important campground to early day travelers and in 1853 William Mathewson, the original “Buffalo Bill,” established a trading post near the crossing. In 1858, a stage station was also built. In 1860 “Buffalo Bill” Mathewson hunted buffalo to supply meat to settlers of Eastern Kansas whose cattle herds had been reduced by droughts in 1859 and 1860. In the 1860s a toll bridge was built about 150 yards upstream. The actual crossing was just south of the present bridge over Cow Creek.

Perhaps the best-known surviving feature of the Cow Creek Crossing area is Buffalo Bill's hand-dug well. The well was originally dug to serve the Beach Ranch at Cow Creek Crossing, providing water for livestock as well as for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Buffalo Bill's Well is 4 miles west of Lyons on US Highway 56, then 1 mile south on a gravel road. At this point two gravel roads intersect, and the well is in the northwest quadrant of that intersection near the road.

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