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Trail Ruts and Soule's Ditch

West of Dodge City, Kansas

About 9 miles west of Dodge City the Santa Fe Trail left the Arkansas River Valley to climb a low hill and make a 2-mile arc back to the valley to the west.  Today there's a parking area on the side of the hill with a signboard displaying an old photograph.  According to Simmons and Jackson "The splendid set of ruts seen here, perhaps the longest and best preserved in Kansas, are part of that arc."

The short trail to the top of the hill leads to a grand 360° panorama of the prairie and another signboard--for Soule's Ditch, a failed irrigation project from the mid 1880s.

To learn more about Asa Soule and his role in the Gray County Seat War listen to NPR's audio documentary or read a brief history of Cimarron.