This park is the third home for this marker. Originally, the DAR placed it on the west side of the road at 105th and Pflumm. Later, the stone was moved to Caenen Lake Road and Santa Fe Trail Drive, near the Lenexa Lumber Company. Finally it was moved to its present location. |
Click on marker for more information.
Click on bridge for more information. |
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Visit the Kansas City, Missouri School District'sTrails Project
The Great Prairie Highway(Source: National Parks Service, U.S. Deparatment of the Interior)
The Santa Fe Trail stirs imaginations as few other historic trails can. For 60 years, the Trail was one thread in a web of international trade routes. It influenced economies as far away as New York and London. Spanning 900 miles of the Great Plains between the United States (Missouri) and Mexico (Santa Fe), it brought together a cultural mosaic of individuals who cooperated, and sometimes clashed. In the process, the rich and varied cultures of Great Plains Indian peoples caught in the middle were changed forever. Soldiers used the Trail during the 1846 -1848 Mexican -American War, 1840s border disputes between the Republic of Texas and Mexico, and America's Civil War, and troops policed conflicts between traders and Indian tribes. With the traders and military freighters tramped a curious company of gold -seekers, emigrants, adventurers, mountain men, hunters, American Indians, guides, packers, translators, invalids, reports, and Mexican children bound for schools in Los Estados Unidos (the United States).
Spain jealously protected the borders of its New Mexico colony, prohibiting manufacturing and international trade. Missourians and others visiting Santa Fe told of an isolated provincial capital starved for manufactured goods and Supplies - a potential gateway to Mexico's interior markets. In 1821, the Mexican people revolted against Spanish rule. With independence, they unlocked the gates of trade, using the Santa Fe Trail as the key. Encouraged by Mexican officials, the Santa Fe trade boomed, strengthening and linking the economies of Missouri and Mexico's northern provinces. The close of the Civil War in 1865 released America's industrial energies, and the railroad pushed westward, gradually shortening and then replacing the Santa Fe Trail.
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The Santa Fe Trail Time Line:
1540 Prior to 1540 American Indians establish trade and travel routes that later become part of the Santa Fe Trail.
During the years of 1540 -1541, Francisco Vazques de Coronado explores from Mexico to Quivira (Kansas).
The horse was first introduced on a large scale into what is now the U.S. by Coronado. These animals eventually mingled with large French Norman horses brought to Canada by French settlers, producing the wild horses later found in North America.
1601 Juan de Onate spends five months traveling with wagons and artillery through the Plains. 1739 Paul and Peter Mallet make first French trading venture to Santa Fe from Illinois country. 1792 Frenchman Pedro Vial travels from Santa Fe to St. Louis for Spanish government. 1803 On May 2, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase is signed. President Thomas Jefferson pays $15 million for 828,000 square miles of land, doubling the size of the U.S.A. 1804 The Lewis and Clark expedition (45 men in a 55-foot keelboat and two pirogues) which on May 14, had started up the Missouri from near St. Louis, encamped on June 26 "at the upper point of the mouth of the river Kanzas," and remained for three days. 1806 Zebulon Montgomery Pike starts from St. Louis for Santa Fe. 1819 Jules de Mun and Auguste Pierre Chouteau traverse the Arkansas route. 1821 Mexico wins independence from Spain. William Becknell's party from Missouri is welcomed in Santa Fe. In 1821, the eastern terminus was Franklin, Missouri; by 1832, Independence, Missouri; and by 1845, Westport Landing (now Kansas City, Missouri). 1824 "The whole distance from the settlements on the Missouri to the mountains in the neighborhood of Santa Fe, is a prairie country, with no obstructions to the route ....A good wagon road can ... be traced out, upon which a sufficient supply of fuel and water can be procured, at all seasons, except in winter." -- Alphonso Wetmore, 1824. Mule and ox drivers made day-to-day Trail operations work. Mexican arrieros (muleteers) were famous for their abilities. Oxen became favored to pull freight wagons. Pittsburgh-made Conestoga wagons hauled 2 -3 tons of freight. Later, wagons were made in Missouri. 1833 William and Charles Bent and Ceran St.Vrain build Bent's Fort 1836 Texas wins independence from Mexico. 1844 Trader Josiah Gregg chronicles his trips over the trail in Commerce of the Prairies. 1846 U.S. invades Mexico. 1848 The Mexican-American War ends. The United States acquires almost half of Mexico's lands (including New Mexico) in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 1849 The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California increases the traffic on the Trail. 1850 A cholera epidemic swept through the Middle West and West after passing through the South the previous year. From New Orleans it fanned through the U.S. and was checked in successive advances only by cold weather. 1851 Fort Union, New Mexico, is established to help protect the Trail's commerce. 1861 The Civil War lasts until 1865. 1862 The battle at Glorieta Pass in New Mexico holds the Southwest for the Union. 1866 A cholera epidemic decimated many U.S. cities. About 200 a day died in St. Louis, Mo., during the height of the epidemic. 1869 The Trail grows shorter as the railroads push westward. 1878 The Santa Fe Railroad reaches Raton Pass on the Mountain Route. 1880 The Santa Fe Railroad reaches Santa Fe; the Santa Fe Trail slips into history. 1906 The Daughters of the American Revolution begin erecting Trail markers. 1986 The Santa Fe Trail Association forms to help preserve and promote awareness and appreciation of the Trail. 1987 Congress designates the Santa Fe Trail a National Historic Trail under the National Trails System Act.
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To learn more about the Santa Fe Trail, obtain these books at your library or book store; there are many more.
| On the Santa Fe Trail | by Marc Simmons |
| The Pioneers | Time-Life Books..... The Old West |
| Commerce of the Prairies | by Josiah Gregg |
| True Tales of Old-Time Kansas | by David Dary |
| The Old Santa Fe Trail | by Stanley Vestal |
| The Road to Santa Fe | by George Champlin Sibley |
| Path To Glory: A Pictorial Celebration of the Santa Fe Trail | by Jami Parkison |
| Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: | The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847 |
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Flat Rock Creek /Indian Creek Timeline:
(K.C. Area Historic Trails Association and Lenexa Historical Society
Program for 175th Anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail Survey Enactment, April 27, 1996.
Flat Rock Creek Park, 13120 W.103 St. Lenexa, Ks. 66215)This location was one of the first overnight stops on the trail. Flat Rock Creek flows into Indian Creek about half a mile from this location. The land surrounding it is now a city park and swimming pool, known as Flat Rock Creek Park.
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| 1825 | Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri arranges for the U.S. Government to survey the Santa Fe Trail. The survey ended in 1827. Joseph Brown and George Sibley survey the Trail. Brown and Sibley designate the location as "Flat Rock Creek". |
| 1827 | Fort Leavenworth established. Traders and military personnel from Fort Leavenworth reached the main stem of the Santa Fe Trail over various roads. The easternmost and probably the first thus used was the existing road to Fort Scott, which intersected the Olathe Cutoff a mile west of Westport and the main Santa Fe Trail east of "The Narrows" near present Baldwin City. Some traders would have taken the Fort Riley military road, leaving it northwest of Topeka to join the main Santa Fe Trail west of Burlingame. |
| 1827 | Independence, Mo., established. |
| 1829 | Charles Bent, William Bent, David and William Waldo, and others most likely crossed here at Indian Creek, going to Round Grove. |
| 1829 | Mountain man William Sublette and others came down the Santa Fe Trail, likely crossing here in route to turning northwest of the Santa Fe Trail (west of present day Gardner) thus piloting the so-called "Sublette's Trace", the future Oregon Trail. |
| 1830 | The first Shawnee Indian Methodist Mission is built near the present-day town of Turner. |
| 1831 | Grinter's Ferry established. Moses Grinter established the first ferry across the Kaw (Kansas River) in January of 1831, a craft which utilized a rope arrangement to allow the current to carry it back and forth across the river. The present house was built in 1857. Ruts of the Fort Scott (and Fort Gibson) military road were found a short distance north-west of the house. |
| 1834 | Westport Established. |
| 1835 | Returning east over the Santa Fe Trail, Col. Henry Dodge and the 1st U.S. Dragoons most likely crossed here, returning to Fort Leavenworth after a 1,645 mile round trip over the plains, in a "tour-de-force" to impress the indians of the plains. |
| 1838 | Following the Santa Fe Trail out of Westport, in route to the Oregon Trail junction, a party of missionaries crossed here at Indian Creek. This party included four of the first white women to cross "Kansas" by this route, (they being Mary Gray, Myra Eells, Sarah Smith, and Mary Walker). |
| 1839 | Dr. F. A. Wislizenus and the American Fur Company crossed here. Describing the location, Wislizenus said on May 5, 1839 that his group ..."marched over the broad Santa Fe road, beaten out by the caravans". |
| 1839 | The Shawnee Indian Methodist Mission moved near the Santa Fe Trail in the present-day town of Fairway. The Mission was operated by Rev. Thomas Johnson, the namesake of Johnson County, Kansas. |
| 1841 | Bidwell-Bartleson wagon train, the so-called first emigrant wagon train to set out for the Pacific, would have crossed here at Indian Creek shortly after leaving their Sapling Grove rendezvous. |
| 1846 | During the Mexican-American War, many American troops crossed here at Indian Creek, going down the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico, the war lasting two years. Examples include Lacledes Rangers, a mounted company of 107 from St. Louis, ...also a detachment of Illinois infantry volunteers, escorting 30 government wagons crossed here on July 12, 1847 |
| 1849 | The California Gold Rush filled the Santa Fe Trail with eager travelers destined for the West, and contemporary guidebooks of the day describe Indian Creek as a good campground the first day out. |
| 1853 | Windwagon Thomas promotes the Overland Navigation Company, to send wagons to Santa Fe under sail. |
| 1854 | Kansas opened to settlement. Cholera epidemic. |
| 1854 | Mormon John Davies, with his wagon train on July 2, 1854...."At Indian Creek my wife gave birth to a daughter between 12 and 1 a.m. and at 8 o'clock we rolled out again". |
| 1854 | From 1854 to 1856 Surveys were made of Kansas Territory to establish range, township, and section lines in preparation for statehood. |
| 1854 | From 1854 to 1859 was the era of Border Wars in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. |
| 1861 | From 1861 to 1865 the Civil War took place. Indian Creek crossing here saw use as troops and militia moved between Kansas City and Olathe. Johnson county had been considered a stronghold for southern sympathizers before the war broke out; when Kansas became a state, it was to be a 'free" state. Johnson County was caught in the crossfire between the guerrilla forces of both pro-slavery advocates and abolitionists, eight guerrilla raids in all. The county was just as likely to be visited by "jayhawkers" from Lawrence, Kansas, as "bushwhackers" from Missouri (also called "Missouri pukes"). |
| 1865 | The Lone Elm Campground was a major camping spot for thousands of Oregon and California emigrants as well as Santa Fe traders. Many others took the Olathe Cutoff, which took them past the Mahaffie Farmstead, now owned by the City of Olathe and operated as a museum. It is located on the Old Kansas City Road (the Santa Fe Trail) a few blocks northwest of the Intersection of I-35 and U.S. 169. The house, built in 1865, has been meticulously restored to replicate its role as a premier stop on the stage line to Santa Fe. |
| 1869 | The town of Lenexa was platted and lots were sold. Some sources say the town was named after the Shawnee Indian Chief's daughter Len-ag-see; other sources say it was his wife Na-Nex-Se. |
| 1880s | Road still used for local traffic, as well as the creek crossing. |
| 1906 | The DAR marks the Santa Fe Trail with a red granite marker at 105th and Pflumm Road overlooking the Flat Rock Creek / Indian Creek site to the northeast. This is the same marker that is today in downtown Lenexa. |
| 1996 | Kansas City Area Historic Trails Assoc. establish the site of Flat Rock Creek on the Santa Fe Trail. Kansas City Metro Surveyors Assoc. confirm the site by surveying with 19th century instruments as well as modern electronic distance measuring equipment. They further confirm the location with the use of satellite position technology. |
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