Grant County

The trail entered Grant County midway of its eastern boundary and continued its southwesterly course, crossed the North Fork of the Cimarron River and passed on to the well-known "Lower Springs," later known as the "Wagon Bed Spring," on the main Cimarron River. This stopping-place was in the extreme south part of the county, near the old townsite of Zionville, and was the point on the Cimarron River to which it joined with the route to the Upper Crossing and Chouteau Island in Kearny County.

Wagon Bed Spring was a welcome oasis as pioneers traveling on the Cimarron Cutoff from Gray County had passed some 60 miles between the Arkansas River and the spring. Known as the “Jornada,” the stretch was a  perilous route for people and animals in dry seasons when wagon trains often ran out of water. Here also fierce Plains Indians frequently attacked and plundered the caravans.

Near Wagon Bed Spring, the noted Western explorer and fur trader, Jedediah Smith, was lost for four days without water in 1831. Just as neared the river, he was was killed by Comanche Indians.

Wagon Bed Spring, is on the north bank of the Cimarron River about 11 miles south and 1/2 miles west of Ulysses, Kansas. The site can be accessed and the Wagon Bed Springs Chapter has set up a display near the original Lower Springs location, which depicts the way the Springs looked in Trail days. Many trail ruts can be seen in the area.

Wagon Bed Spring in Grant County, Kansas, Kathy Weiser, September, 2008.

Stevens County

Through Stevens County the trail paralleled the Cimarron River in its course through the northwest part of the county, but there were no important camping places or landmarks. In their travels, pioneers sometimes kept fairly close to the river, but at times were several miles away; hence there were really two routes - the "river" and the "upland."

Morton County

Morton County has some thirty miles of the old trail within its borders. Entering the county about eight miles south of its northeast corner, the trail continued along the Cimarron River until it came to the Middle or Cimarron Spring situated about nine miles north of present-day Elkhart, Kansas. After Wagon Bed (or Lower Spring), Middle Spring was the next reliable water source for travelers in the Cimarron Valley. This made it a major stopping point and a campsite on the Santa Santa Fe Trail. The site can be accessed by traveling 8 miles north of Elkhart on Kansas Highway 27, and about 1 mile west on a dirt road through Cimarron National Grassland to a small enclosed park on the north side of the road.

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