Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-05-14
THE SANTA TRAIL

Til OIlaIlH llIIlaEt
How Missouri Women viii Aid mi
Marking Old Highway.
OLDEST CITIZENS C0NsU TED
Daughters Of the American Revolution
Have Taken Up the Worl<-::-ln Kan
sas the Trail Will Be Marked BY
Granite Monuments.
The Daughters of the American Rev.
olution have undertaken to mark the
old Santa Fe trail, of historic memory,
lsays a special dispatch from Kansas
City, Mo-, to the st. Louis Globe-D DEM
ocrat. In Kansas City and Jackson
county, Mo-, similar work win be
done to connect at the state line with
the Kansas monuments. For working
the trail west Of the Kansas state line
! to the New Mexico border the Colorado
Legislature has made an appropriation.
This leaves only the gap in New Mex
leo to be marked.
In aid Of the project the Kansas leg
lsislatnre has granted an appropriation
Of 81 600, but the greater part Of the
money necessary to defray the expense
will be given by the men, women and
children and by the schools and |
churches of the state OF Missouri. Al
ready the public schools Of Missouri
have had penny contributions, and the
daughters will devise other means by
which the patriotism and the public
spirit Of the people will be reached.
The design Is to make it monument
OF the people to the memory Of the
hardy plainsmer who blazed the way
for the civilization which since has
come to the great American desert.
The trail in Kansas will be marked
with stones taken from d granite quar-
~ near the town Of Granite, Okla. OF
this granite about four monuments to:
a county will be used. Later mile
/ stones made Of cement, dug from the
j soil of Kansas, will be set between the
i granite monuments. Two Of the gran
lite monuments already have been set
in johnson county by local associa-
i lions, and this summer other local as
sociations along the course Of the old
trail will set stones. The Atchison, To-
i peka and Santa Re Railway company
i will suitably mark the trail where that
4 railroad crosses.
In making the survey for the monu-s
4 ments the Oldest inha bitants and other.
survivors Of the period will be consult
4 ed. For since the advent Of the rail-
L way and the consequent abandonment
i Of the trail the course of this ancient
4 path Of caravan commerce, except in
Isolated localities of the remote south
Il west, has been obliterated by the fruit
Iful farms, the town sites and the stat
sutory highways Of modern civilization,
q and the memories Of the men and wo-
4 men who used the trail in it's latter
day or have witnessed Its passing must
4 be depended upon. .55 .:.5s
In the eastern part Of Kansas old
wells, roadhouses and trees where
halts were made for the MONDAY re-
Il freshments and the groves where the
4 night camps were pitched, so far as
SpOSSlUlS, Will NC LII LIZ StSsoSS
beyond the Cottonwood river In Kan
sas to the end of the trail, where the
Il real hardships and dangers of the long
i journey across the plains began the
4 sites of the military posts, long since
abandoned, will be marked and an
i Gent landmarks preserved. The site
OF old Fort Mann In Kansas, which
4 was surprised by Indians and the gar
Il rison massacred, and of old Fort
q Bent In Colorado, especially, will be
II marked. 8,
Although unused, abandoned and al.
i most forgotten this famous path Of
commerce, the forerunner Of a great
transcontinental railway, still marks
the solitude of the plains. The wagon
ruts are grassgrown, but distinct. The
roadside still bears the scars of camp
fires, long since auenched by the SHOWS
and rains Of third Of century.
Il Even evidences Of the caches Of the
& early voyagers of the prairies remain.
4 The towns which were founded and
4 the settlements which grew and
4 thrived upon the caravan traffic have
i passed from the map. All the busy
commerce OF the plains is gone, but
q Gods pastures remain, and, succeed
i Ing the wild Indian and the migratory
bison, have come the peaceful Amer.
q lean and his herds Of domestic cattle.
The old trail In Rice county, KAN,
crossed the largest deposit Of salt in
a the world, which Is 200 miles long and
800 feet thick.
q Farming Without Horses.
Sully county In Minnesota claims to
q have the most perfect example extant