Kansas - East

The Shawnee Mission was one of many missions established as a manual training school attended by boys and girls from Shawnee, Delaware, and other Indian nations from 1839 to 1862.

Lone Elm Campground is where many Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trail travelers spent their first night west of the Missouri River. For several decades, starting in 1821, this site served as a campground and rendezvous point for people traveling along these trails. The wagon swales created by the travelers can still be seen in the park, where the overland trails crossed a creek.

Established in 1858, the Mahaffie farmstead served as a stagecoach stop along the Santa Fe Trail where travelers could purchase supplies, eat a home-cooked meal, and even spend the night. The proprietor, J. B. Mahaffie, ran the stage stop with his wife, daughters, and some hired helpers. It remained in operation until 1881, right around the time that the Santa Fe Trail gave way to the railroad.

Tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres of North America, but within a generation most of it had been transformed into farmland. Today less than 4% remains intact, mostly in the Kansas Flint Hills. Established on November 12, 1996, the preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Here the tallgrass makes its last stand.

The Shawnee Mission was one of many missions established as a manual training school attended by boys and girls from Shawnee, Delaware, and other Indian nations from 1839 to 1862.

Lanesfield Historic Site consists of a historic schoolhouse, some outbuildings, and a visitor center. The schoolhouse, which served the now-defunct town of Lanesfield, is the main attraction. In addition to providing a glimpse of rural education during the nineteenth century, the site also allows visitors to experience a small mail stop along the Santa Fe Trail.

Established in 1858, the Mahaffie farmstead served as a stagecoach stop along the Santa Fe Trail where travelers could purchase supplies, eat a home-cooked meal, and even spend the night. The proprietor, J. B. Mahaffie, ran the stage stop with his wife, daughters, and some hired helpers. It remained in operation until 1881, right around the time that the Santa Fe Trail gave way to the railroad.

Kaw Mission tells the story of the place where 30 Kaw boys lived and attended school from 1851 to 1854. The Kaw (or Kansa) gave Kansas its name. They lived here along the Santa Fe Trail for less than 30 years before the US government removed them to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Today, the Kaw Mission is one of the oldest buildings still standing in this part of Kansas and is operated by the Kansas State Historical Society as a museum.

The Santa Fe Trail forked into two routes as it headed south from Westport. Along the routes were campgrounds for trail travelers — to the northeast of the junction was Sapling Grove and to the southwest was a campground called Flat Rock or Indian Creek. Until the 1860s, these two routes out of Westport saw traffic from Santa Fe traders, Oregon- and California-bound emigrants, mountain men, missionaries, gold seekers, and the frontier military.

Since the late 1820s, Sapling Grove, located on the headwaters of Turkey Creek, was a significant campsite on the Santa Fe Trail. George Sibley, an Indian agent who was commissioned to survey the trail in 1825-27, included Sapling Grove on his list of campsites. The park has several interpretive historical markers that discuss 19th century trail activities.

This house, which now serves as a restaurant, was built in 1861 by teamster Abraham Rawlinson and his wife Mary. The house witnessed Santa Fe Trail traffic for the next five years, and was later purchased by a livery-stable owner William Riley Terwilliger in 1870.

Prairie Village Ruts marks the location of the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe Trails in the form of rounded depressions in the ground called swales. These swales were once part of a well-defined path, most equivalent to a modern day dirt road, that was created as thousands of oxen, cattle, and wagons traveled across the land. They eroded and compacted the ground, which created ruts. Over time, the ruts were weathered into the more gently sloping swales visible today.

From 1825-1847, Santa Fe Trail travelers left messages in a cache at the foot of this tree, said to be used as a “post office.” Trail travelers left notes to inform others of the trail conditions, giving it it’s name “Post Office Oak” The tree died in 1990 and the stump has been preserved on this site.