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Council Grove, Kansas

For most travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, Council Grove meant the end of civilized white society.  Here wagon trains congregated, waiting for sufficient numbers or army escorts before heading into Indian territory.  It was also the last place with plenty of wood, for once they left here there were no more hardwood trees for hundreds of miles.  This heavily-timbered area where the trail crossed the Neosho River received its name in 1825 when Commissioner George Sibley negotiated a treaty with the Osage Indians guaranteeing safe passage.

The first white settler in the area was Seth Hays, a great-grandson of Daniel Boone and a cousin of Kit Carson.  Hays arrived in 1847 and set up a trading post for the nearby Kaw Indians.  In 1857 he built a tavern and hotel.  It still exists today, although much changed, as the Hays House, which claims to be the oldest eating establishment west of the Mississippi.

In the fall of 1850 the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, under contract to the U.S. government, began building a two-story 36' x 51'  limestone building with four chimneys.  When it and several outbuildings were completed in 1851, the Kaw Mission opened; however, the Kansa sent only a few orphan boys to be educated.  After a few years the building became a school for local white children.  Geocache: Santa Fe Trail Ks -03.

One traveler along the trail in 1863 was Giovanni Maria Augustini, a religious mystic who lived in this cave for five months before walking the 550 miles to Las Vegas, NM.  Born in 1801 into an Italian nobleman's family, he traveled through Europe and South America before coming to Council Grove.  In Las Vegas he retreated to a cave in the mountain which became known as Hermit's Peak.  Geocache: Hermit's Cave.

In 1867 George Armstrong Custer and part of the 7th Calvary camped under this elm tree near Elm Creek.

In spite of all the travelers who camped in Council Grove building campfires and stocking up on wood, and Dutch elm disease, at least one old tree remains today, a bur oak with a sprout date of 1776.  (The stump of the Custer elm is in the pavilion behind the tree.) 

These and many of the other historic sites of Council Grove can be seen while walking, with a couple of minor modifications, the 10 km Council Grove Year Round Volksmarch sponsored by the Sunflower Sod Stompers.

There's another geocache along the Riverwalk.