Note: We have left these pages active until we can update with those from our new home in Missouri. We thought many would be interested in seeing our facilities in the "Sunflower State? Enjoy!
is located in Douglas County in eastern Kansas actually yards away from the the convergence of the historic Oregon, California, and Santa Fe Trails! We take pride in living in an area steeped with history, and on summer nights when everything is quiet and all that echos across the prairie and wheat fields is the occaisional howl of a lonesome coyote, you'd almost swear you can hear the creaks and groans of the conestoga wagons on their way west..... Wildlife abounds! Besides the ever present white-tail deer, red tail hawk, wild turkeys, and coyotes, the forest behind our house is home to red fox, bob-cat, bald eagles, and even a panther or two passing through. We feel fortunate to have been able to find this site; all the serenity we love, yet close enough to Kansas City and Lawrence to get more than our share of great barbeque and NCAA basketball. And, oh yes, just a few miles from the Interstate in order to grab our weekly dog show 'fix'. In 1996 the Santa Fe Trail's 175th anniversary is being celebrated in recognition of the importance this trade and immigrant trail - the oldest and best preserved in the West - played in shaping America. The route of the Santa Fe Trail actually began in the days of Coronado when he traveled over the general course of the trail on his way to the kingdom of Quivera. Later Zebulon Pike traveled the route toward the discovery and naming of the mountain that bears his name. Others including Fremont the Pathfinder and Don Diego de Vargas the Conqueror traveled portions of the trail, but it wasn't until William W. Becknell proved its destiny as a major commercial route that it achieved its place in history. Trade with Santa Fe had been attempted earlier, but Spain viewed it as a threat and banned any such links, arresting those who t;ied and confiscating their goods and wagons. However, in 1821, Mexico declared its independence from Spain and Santa Fe -nearly isolated from the even more distantMexican trading centers for over 250 years responded to the end of Spanish conuol by welcoming trade with the United States. In November, 1821 William Becknell, a Missouri trader, organized the first successful pack mule uain to Santa Fe. Crossing the Missouri River at Franklin, MO. he followed the Indian trail to the Spanish southwest, arriving in Santa Fe November 16. His reports of his successful trading there brought others, and a year later he led the first wagon uain west to Santa Fe. On this trip he initiated the use of mule-drawn wagons instead oflhe pack horses.The next year Becknell used much the same route in taking a second wagon train to the Rockies. From the first trade mission in 1821, travel over the Santa Fe Trail grew, and by 1825 it had grown to such frequency that President James Monroe commissioned a team - including George Sibley - to survey and map the trail. Congress also authorized a treaty with the Osage Indians to guarantee the safety of trail travelers. The trail, usually 60 to 100 feet wide, often stretched to a width of over 400 feet and became so packed by the passing wagons and oxen that it was years before it could be plowed. The round trip for trade caravans, usually 20 to 100 wagons weighing about 1.500 pounds each and carrying loads of up to 5,000 pounds, took about 120 days, starting early in the spring to avoid the snows catching ihem in the high valleys. Records from 1843 report an excess of $450,000 worth of merchandise traveling the Santa Fe Trail. and during the Mexican War of 184647 troops marched from Ft.Leavenworth to the war over the trail. Regular trade travel was cut back tremendously, but it rebounded again after the war. Between May 21 and November 25, 1865 records show the trail traffic consisting of 4,472 wagons, 5,197 men, 1,267 horses, 6,454 mules, 38.281 oxen. 112 carriages. and 13.156 tons of freight. The typical trade caravan consisted of about 30 wagons, including one chuck wagon. Most had five to six yoke of oxen and six to ten extras in case of emergencies. When an oxen was worn out, it was left behind to survive on its own. At Santa Fe the remaining stock and wagons not needed for the return trip were sold. Early in the history of the Trail pack mules were used, but with the advent of the heavier freight wagons - built larger to cany bigger loads to minimize the Mexican per wagen tax - came the ox teams. Mules big enough to pull the wagons weighing between 2500 and 7000 pounds cost about $200 a pair. Oxen were cheaper and could endure the cold much better. These teams could cover about 15 miles a day. They required less food, could go longer with a small amount of water, could pull heavier loads, wouldn't run away, were better at fording streams because they weren't apt to founder, were less tempting to the Indians, and could be eaten at the end of the trip if the food supply was low. However they suffered from tender feet and were often worthless at the end of the trip. Beginning in 1850 a monthly stage coach operatingbetween St. Louis and Santa Fe traveled the Trail. The next decade saw the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Raiiway building westward, replacing sections of the stage line and the Trail as it progressed, completely replacing the wagon trains by 1879. During its half-century of heavy traffic such famous personalities as Buffalo Bill Cody, Kit Carson, Lucien B. Maxwell, Jim Bridger, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, and Generals Custer, Sherman and Keamey tramped the 775 miles from Westport, MO to Santa Fe,... five hundred fifty miles of it laying within the boundaries of Kansas. The trail, 1000 miles without a bridge from Franklin, MO to Santa Fe, NM, was the most perfect natural highway ever known. The trail passed through present day Shawnee Mission, Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe, and Gardner. Forty-one miles from Westport, where the Ft.Leavenworth military road joined the trail, the Santa Fe and Oregon trails divided, and the Santa Fe Trail continued southwestward creating the settlement of Lanesfield before entering southern Douglas County. Douglas County offers perhaps the most and best remaining traces of this historic trail, which passed directly through northeastem Baldwm City. These trail sites include not only the four parallel swales carved in the native prairie by the passing wagon trains, the well where trains stopped for water, and even portions of the trail that is still in use today.The Santa Fe Trail offers a unique opportunity to rekindle the pioneering spirit of the bullwhackers, traders, Buffalo soldiers and settlers who carved the ruts in the prairie and wrote this important page in history 175 years ago. The wagon trains entered Douglas County just north of Highway 56 at the Johnson County line six miles east of Baldwin. The Santa FeTrail played a crucial role in the westward expansion of the United States, and for nearly sixty years (1821-1880) it was the most important two-way route to the southwest until the railroad replaced it. Used first by Native Americans, it was later traveled by Spanish explorers, French trappers, emigrants and gold seekers, adventurers, US calvary,traders, pioneer settlers, and mailand-passenger stage coaches. Crossing over 1,200 miles of central and southwest country, from Franklin, Missouri,to Santa Fe, Mexico (now New Mexico) the trail lives on through 164 historic sites and 28 trail segments where wagon ruts still shape the prairie. Many of these sites were marked with stone tablets by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Trail crossed much of Kansas, and seven of those historic sites are in south Douglas County, near Baldwin City. Black Jack - near the site of the first skirmish of the Civil War - and the Palmyra Wagon Repair Stop with the Santa Fe Trail Well. Baldwin is the birthplace of Osteopathic Medicine and the Kansas State School for the Deaf. Brooklyn was an early trading center on the Trail that was burned by proslavery forces in Quantrill's Raid.