More Trails of Kansas

More Trails of Kansas

Ellsworth Cattle Trail – When the city of Abilene told Texas cattleman they were no longer welcome in their town in 1872, primarily due to tick fever, the unruly conduct of the many cowboys, and the destruction that the big herds did to local land, a number of Ellsworth residents went down the old Chisholm Trail to urge drovers to bring their herds to Ellsworth, about 60 miles southwest of Abilene. Though Ellsworth, in 1871, had already attracted many cattle drovers, with some 30,000 head shipped from the town, they clearly couldn’t compete with the Queen of Cowtowns. With Abilene denying their entry in 1872, Ellsworth began to thrive and that year, some 220,000 Texas Longhorns came up the Chisholm Trail to the new shipping point.

A new offshoot of the trail was surveyed by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, led by William M. Cox, General Livestock Agent for the railroad. The new route, saved the cattle drovers about 35 miles, leaving the original trail in Indian Territory halfway between the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River and Pond Creek.

Cattle at the Smoky Hill River near Ellsworth, Kansas,

Alexander Gardner, 1867.

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The trail then crossed the Arkansas River at Ellinwood, Kansas before making its way to Ellsworth. The new route was sometimes called Cox’s Trail or the Ellsworth Trail, but, most of time was referred to as the middle branch of the Chisholm Trail.

In 1867, a Kansas law had established a quarantine, prohibiting southern cattle in the state due to outbreaks of “Texas Fever.” However, because of the high demand for cattle, Joseph G. McCoy, who had established the cattle market in Abilene several years earlier, had convinced the state not to enforce the rule. In 1873, the law was reinforced but

Ellsworth thought itself safe, outside the line of quarantine. However, it was actually a few miles inside the line. The town promoters assured Texans that they would be exempt from the law and this proved to be the case, but mainly because it was not enforced. Locals said that it was violated daily. Like other Kansas cowtowns, Ellsworth earned a wicked reputation with its many cowboys. But the prosperity wouldn’t last and its shipping pens were finally closed in 1875.

Fayetteville Emigrant Trail - This trail ran northwest from the Arkansas Post, the first semi-permanent European settlement in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located on the Arkansas River in southeast Arkansas, the trail, which was originally an Indian Trail, but as people began to move westward, it began to be utilized to transfer pioneers to the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas.

The trail left Arkansas Post, bearing northwest and passed through Austin, Arkansas a few miles northeast of Little Rock, before continuing between the Arkansas and White Rivers. The emigrant trail was joined at Fayetteville by a road from Fort Smith on the Arkansas River. It then traversed the northeast corner of Oklahoma, crossing the Neosho River and entered the state of Kansas in what is now Montgomery County. The path continued on, requiring pioneers to get over the Verdigris River about two miles north of the Kansas state line, went through the present-day site of Coffeyville and continued along the northeast side of Onion Creek before making its way northwest. Finally, it converged with the Santa Fe Trail at Turkey Creek in McPherson County, Kansas. In Kansas the trail crossed the counties of Montgomery, Chautauqua, Elk, Butler, Harvey, Marion and McPherson.

During the days of westward expansion, the trail was widely used, also connecting to the Oregon and California Trails. However, travel dramatically fell off during the Civil War. When the Osage lands in southern Kansas were thrown open for settlement, the old trail was soon obliterated and abandoned and by the end of the 19^th Century, only traces of it could be seen.

An Army train crossing the plains, Harper's Weekly,

April 24, 1868

Kaw Trail – Another old Indian Trail that connected with the Santa Fe Trail, the Kaw Trail was first utilized by the Kanza Indians who traversed it regularly during their hunting expeditions. When it began to be utilized by American pioneers, the trail began at Big John, on the Kaw Reservation, near Council Grove and passed through the counties of Morris, Chase and Marion, to present-day Florence. From there, it went to what was known as Big Timbers on Turkey Creek, where it intersected with the Santa Fe Trail. By the end of the 19^th Century only traces could be found on the rising ground west of Florence and on Diamond Creek in Chase County.

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