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Arrival of the RailroadMarker Topic: Arrival of the Railroad California-Oregon TrailMarker Topic: California-Oregon Trail Coronado and QuiviraMarker Topic: Coronado and Quivira Ellsworth, The Cowtown and FortMarker Topic: Ellsworth, The Cowtown and FortAddress: K-14, Turnout, North Main Street, city of Ellsworth City: Ellsworth County: Ellsworth Marker Text: When the Union Pacific built through here in 1867 this was buffalo country. As the engines chugged on west, the Hays newspaper reports: "Passengers on the cars between here and Ellsworth have almost daily fine sport shooting at buffalo, immense herds of the huge beasts constantly entering for races with the locomotives." Ellsworth, founded in 1867, was the main terminus of the Texas cattle trade in Kansas 1871-1875. First Capitol of KansasState Historic SiteMarker Topic: First Capitol of KansasAddress: South of Huebner Road at old Capitol Building, Fort Riley Reservation City: Fort Riley County: Geary Marker Text: This building was erected in 1855 in the now extinct town of Pawnee for the first legislature of Kansas. The members were mostly Missourians, fraudulently elected in an effort to make Kansas a slave state. They came in wagons and on horseback well armed, and camped out on the prairie. The session lasted from July 2 to 6. Fort HaysMarker Topic: Fort Hays Historic AbileneMarker Topic: Historic AbileneAddress: Turnout Old Abilene Town, South Sixth Street City: Abilene County: Dickinson Marker Text: At the end of the Civil War when millions of longhorns were left on the plains of Texas without a market, the Union Pacific was building west across Kansas. Joseph McCoy, an Illinois stockman, believed these cattle could be herded north for shipment by rail. He built yards at Abilene and sent agents to notify the Texas cattlemen. In 1867 the first drives were made up the Chisholm Trail and during the next five years more than a million head were received. Historical KansasMarker Topic: Historical KansasAddress: I-70, Milepost 337, westbound rest area near Paxico City: Paxico County: Wabaunsee Marker Text: You are on the eastern edge of a Bluestem pasture region known as the Flint Hills. Extending past Junction City, this nutritious grazing area averages 60 miles in width, and reaches south into Oklahoma. For centuries buffalo in great numbers grazed its acres. Eventually they were succeeded by rangy Texas cattle. "Texas shipped up the horns and we put the bodies under them," old Kansas cowmen used to say. Today the Flints Hills fatten more than a million fine cattle annually. Historical KansasMarker Topic: Historical KansasAddress: Milepost 310, westbound rest area 12 miles East of Junction City City: Junction City County: Geary Marker Text: Seven miles ahead you will drive through the southern edge of Fort Riley, established as Camp Center in 1852. The fort was visited by Horace Greeley, noted editor of the New York Tribune when he traveled by stagecoach to the Pike's Peak region in 1859 to determine if reports of gold discoveries were humbug. Of Fort Riley, "I hear that two millions of Uncle Sam's money have been expended in making these snug arrangements and that the oats largely consumed here have often cost three dollars per bushel!" Historical KansasMarker Topic: Historical KansasAddress: I-70, Milepost 294, westbound rest area west of Junction City City: Junction City County: Geary Marker Text: Abilene, 20 miles ahead, was a cowtown of major importance in the history of the American West. During 1867-1871 much of the town was a mixture of bawling Longhorn cattle and cowhands up from Texas - with numerous, more worldly two-legged critters in supporting occupations. Abilene's most respected early lawman was Thomas J. Smith, killed by a half-crazed settler in 1871, contributed to the town's bloody history by engaging rowdy Phil Coe in a blazing gun battle at eight feet. Historical KansasMarker Topic: Historical KansasAddress: I-70, Milepost 294, eastbound rest area, 2 miles west of Junction City City: Junction City County: Geary Marker Text: Five miles to the northeast the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers united to form the Kansas or Kaw. At the junction, the city, which bears the name, was founded in 1857. Before the arrival of the westward-building Union Pacific railroad in 1866, steamboats occasionally navigated the Kaw River from Kansas City to Junction City, when they could elude the sifting sandbars. Hollenberg Ranch and the Pony ExpressHollenberg Pony Express Station State Historic SiteMarker Topic: Hollenberg Ranch and the Pony ExpressAddress: US-36, 11 miles west of Marysville City: Marysville County: Washington Marker Text: Begun in 1858, the Hollenberg Ranch, four miles north and one mile east of here, served as a stop on the Oregon-California Trail until the late 1860s. Gerat and Sophia Hollenberg, German emigrants, sold food and other supplies, lodging, and draft animals to passing travelers. Settlers, freighters, soldiers, stagecoach passengers, and Pony Express riders all stopped there. Kansas Indian TreatyMarker Topic: Kansas Indian TreatyAddress: Old US-81, 4 miles southeast of K-61 junction City: McPherson County: McPherson Marker Text: In 1825 President James Monroe approved a bill providing for the survey of the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to New Mexico and the making of treaties to insure friendly relations with Indians along the route. A mile west of this sign, on Dry Turkey Creek, a monument marks the site of a council on August 16, 1825, between U.S. Commissioners Reeves, Sibley and Mather, and Son-ja-inga and fifteen other headmen of The Kansas or Kaw nation. Indian WarsMarker Topic: Lincoln County and the Indian WarsAddress: K-18, Roadside turnout, 3 miles east of Lincoln Republic County, Entrance to the Pawnee Indian Village State Historic Site. City: Lincoln County: Lincoln Marker Text: By the 1850s Plains Indians were faced with ever-growing numbers of travelers and settlers in central and western Kansas. Treaties were negotiated by the U.S. government, often taking advantage of tribal divisions, forcing native peoples onto reservations and limiting their hunting areas. Although relations between settlers and Indians were generally peaceful, tensions developed as more settlers arrived. Country of the PawneeMarker Topic: Country of the PawneeAddress: US-36, Roadside turnout, east end of Republican River Bridge City: Scandia County: Republic Marker Text: Long before white men settled Kansas this region was the home of Pawnee Indians. French traders in the late 1700s named those along this river the Republican Pawnee in the mistaken belief that their form of government was a republic. From them the Republican River and in turn Republic County and city took their names. Pawnee Indian Village MuseumMarker Topic: Pawnee Indian Village MuseumAddress: Entrance to the Pawnee Indian Village State Historic Site County: Republic Marker Text: This is the site of a large, fortified village of the Republican band of Pawnee Indians, occupied during the early 1800s. As the inscription on the stone marker indicates, the village was long believed by local, state and national historians to be that visited by Zebulon M. Pike in 1808. On the strength of this belief, the site was purchased and presented to the state in 1899 by Elizabeth A. and George Johnson. Later investigations cast doubt on the claim, chiefly because the topography does not match that described by Pike. Nevertheless, there can be no question that the farsighted and public-spirited action of the donors saved this important location from destruction. Today it is the only major preserved Pawnee village site in the Central Plains area, and this museum, constructed around a scientifically excavated house floor, is unique in Plains archeology. Pawnee RockMarker Topic: Pawnee RockAddress: U.S. 56, Roadside Park, west of Pawnee Rock City: Pawnee Rock County: Barton Marker Text: A mile northeast is Pawnee Rock, a famous landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Considered the mid-point of the long road between Missouri and New Mexico, Pawnee Rock was a symbol of challenges overcome. Many early travelers mentioned it in their journals, and many of them scratched their names into its soft surface. Fort RileyMarker Topic: Fort RileyAddress: Huebner Road, Fort Riley Reservation City: Fort Riley County: Geary Marker Text: Here where the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers unite to form the Kansas, Fremont 's expedition of 1843 camped and reported great numbers of elk, antelope and Indians. In 1852 the army selected the site for a Western outpost, temporarily called Camp Center. Smoky HillsMarker Topic: Smoky HillsAddress: I-70, Milepost 224, eastbound rest area, east of K-14 junction City: Ellsworth County: Ellsworth Marker Text: This area of Kansas contains the Smoky Hills, an area of rolling hills with occasional mesas and buttes. Pawnee Rock, Coronado Heights, and Rock City are notable elements of the landscape, as are the rock "toadstools" in this park. More of these unique forms, sculpted by erosion, may be seen at Mushroom Rocks State park near Carneiro, east of Ellsworth. VictoriaMarker Topic: VictoriaAddress: First Street, Roadside City: Victoria County: Ellis Marker Text: Nowhere in America were two colonies more unlike than those that came here. Scarlet-coated Britishers who chased antelope on hob-tailed ponies were joined by frugal and hard-working German-Russian immigrants. A Scotsman, George Grant, with 69,000 acres purchased from the railway, offered country estates to aristocrats. The immigrants came for religious freedom and to escape the czar's army. Cricket and Hays city dance halls delighted one colony, homestead rights and the steppe-like prairie the other. Victoria, established in 1873, was named for a queen and laid out by a London architect. Herzog, just north, established in 1876, was built of sod and named for a Volga village. Waconda SpringMarker Topic: Waconda (Great Spring) SpringAddress: US-24, Roadside turnout, 2 miles east of Cawker City City: Cawker City County: Mitchell Marker Text: Many moons ago, so runs an Indian legend, Waconda, a beautiful Princess, fell in love with a brave of another tribe. Prevented from marriage by a blood feud, this warrior embroiled the tribes in battle. During the fight an arrow struck him as he stood on the brink of a spring and he fell mortally wounded into the waters. Fort ZarahMarker Topic: Fort ZarahAddress: US-56, Roadside turnout, 1 mile east of Great Bend City: Great Bend County: Barton Marker Text: In 1865 the Federal government surveyed the Santa Fe Trail, great trade route from western Missouri to Santa Fe. Treaties with Kansas and Osage Indians safeguarded the eastern end of the road but Plains Tribes continued to make raids. Fort Zarah, at this point, was one of a chain of forts built on the Santa Fe Trail to protect wagon trains and guard settlers. |
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