The Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas

Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas - Page 5

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Entering Barton County the trail ran due west towards present day Chase, Kansas, beyond which prominent trail ruts can still be seen. These ruts are known today as “Ralph's Ruts,” after their owner, Ralph Hathaway. His farm was first homesteaded in 1878 by his grandparents, John L. and Mary E. Hathaway. While John and his sons were breaking sod on the northeast forty acres of this quarter, they plowed up numerous items from burned out wagons, including a pistol, a watch, pieces of hardware, and broken ironstone china -- grim evidence of the notorious Plum Buttes Massacre which occurred more than a decade before.

Santa Fe Trail through Barton County, courtesy National

Park Service.

The ruts are located four miles west of Chase, Kansas on US Highway 56, then .75 mile north. Some of the finest examples of pristine trail ruts along the entire route, visitors to the site have an easy access, a turnout for parking and a Daughters of the American Revolution marker to point out the location.

Ralph's Ruts in Barton County, Kansas

Ralph's Ruts, courtesy Travel Kansas

From this location, about one mile west were once several large sand dunes, referred to as Plum Buttes because they were covered with sand hill plum bushes. About 120 feet higher than the surrounding prairie, they were an important landmark for travelers of the Santa Fe Trail. Travelers who sought to avoid the soft, sandy and nearly impassable soils along the Arkansas River, often crossed the dunes through what was called “Gunsight Notch.” Between the years of 1865 and 1884 a gradual "blow out" occurred, which resulted in leveling the buttes and even creating a wide channel or valley in the hills. Though the dunes are gone, the Gunsight Notch and Ruts can still be seen. Extending westerly from Ralph's Ruts, the ruts continue on intermittently for another two miles, where they form the spectacular Gunsight Notch, a ridge worn away by 60 years of commercial and military traffic.

The path continued on to present-day Ellinwood, where it first came to the Arkansas River. Following the river, the trail reached Walnut Creek Crossing about two miles east of Great Bend. The crossing once included a trading ranch, a toll bridge and a military post. The trading post, a large log building, was established by William Allison and Francis Boothe in the summer of 1855. Called the Walnut Creek Ranch, it was the first time a non-military building was erected west of Council Grove. In the succeeding years, the trading post had several owners.

In September 1857, Francis Boothe was murdered by a Mexican and two years later, in April of 1859, Allison traveled to Missouri and while there, died of heart failure.

It was next owned by George Peacock of Independence, Missouri. He was killed in September, 1860 by a Kiowa Chief named Santank. Shortly after Peacock’s death, the post was taken over by Charles Rath, a well known buffalo hunter, who operated the post until 1867. It was then taken over by a man named Joseph W. Douglas until the store was burned down on May 19, 1868, by Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians.

When the creek flooded, wagon trains would camp on its banks for days waiting to cross. It was one of the first streams in the region to have a toll bridge.

Site of Fort Zarah near Great Bend, Kansas, Kathy Weiser, April, 2009.

The Walnut Creek Crossing is about two miles east of Great Bend and south of US Highway 56. The trading post was about 100 yards from the crossing of Walnut Creek, on the east side of the creek and the north of the Santa Fe Trail. Today, only the foundations remain.

The trail then passed by the site of Fort Zarah, which was composed of a large stone building with quarters for officers and troops, kitchens, mess halls, storerooms and other functions. This post was abandoned in 1869 when it was felt that the Indian threat was not sufficient to warrant a second post so close to Fort Larned. The site is located on the north side of US Highway 56, just east of Great Bend in a roadside park.

From here the trail rounded the north or great bend of the Arkansas River, turning southwest near the present-day town of Great Bend, and passing out of the county close to the famous "Rock Point," afterward known as "Pawnee Rock."

One of the best known natural features along the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas, Pawnee Rock is an outcropping of Dakota sandstone, named for a battle with the Pawnee Indians. During the trail days, the rock was nearly 30 feet higher than it is today and many travelers carved their names into the sandstone. Over, the years large amounts of rock was removed for railroad and home construction. However, visitors can still enjoy panoramic views across the prairie from this relatively high landmark. Today, it is a Kansas State Historic Site located ½ north of US Highway 56 on the north edge of the town of Pawnee Rock, Kansas.

Continued Next Page

"After leaving Pawnee Rock, the fear of the Indians was with us day and night…and when we reached Fort Mackey (Fort Atkinson) on the Arkansas River, we breathed a sigh of relief.”

— Marian Russell, near what would become Fort Dodge, 1852

Pawnee Rock was a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail, Kathy Weiser, April, 2009.

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