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

0An / Il | lhAlL
How Missouri Women VIII Aid In.
Marking Old Highway.
OLDEST CITIZENS CONSULTED
Daughters Of the American Revolution
Have Taken Up the Work In Kan.
sas the Trail Will 1s Marked ~
8 Granite Monuments.
The Daughters Of the American Rev
Olution have undertaken to mark the
old Santa Fe trail, OF historic memory,
says q special dispatch from Kansas
City, No, to the st. Louis Globe DEM
ocrat. In Kansas City and Jackson
county, No.. similar work will 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. sss,.
IN aid Of the project the Kansas leg
islature has granted an appropriation
Of $1,000, but the greater part Of the
money necessary ito defray the expense
win 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 viii devise other means by.
which the patriotism and the public
spirit Of the people viii be reached.
The design is to make 1t q monument
Of the people to the memory Of the
hardy plainsmen who blazed the way
for the civilization which since has
come to the great American desert.
The trail in Kansas win be marked
with stones taken from granite quar-
~ near the town Of Granite, Okla. Of
this granite about four monuments to-
q county will be used. Later mile
stones made Of cement, dug from the
soil OF Kansas, will be set between the
granite monuments. Two OF the gran
lite monuments already have been set
In johnson county by, local associa-
lions, and this summer other local as
sociations along the course Of the old
trail will set stones. The Atchison, To-
peka and Santa Fe Railway company.
will suitably mark the trail where that
railroad crosses.
In making the survey for the monu-
ments the oldest inhabitants and other
survivors Of the period will be consult
ed. For since the advent of the rail-
way and the consequent abandonment
OF the trail the course OF this ancient
path OF caravan commerce, except In
isolated localities Of the remote south
west, has been obliterated by the fruit
ful farms, the town sites and the stat
utory highways of modern civilization,
and the memories Of the men and wo-
men who used the trail in-its latter
day or have witnessed Its passing must
be depended upon.
In the eastern part OF Kansas old
wells, roadhouses and trees where
halts were made for the MONDAY re-
freshments and the groves where the
night camps were pitched, SO far as
possible, Will be restored. In the west
beyond the Cottonwood river in Kan
sas to the end OF the trail, where the
real hardships and dangers Of the long
Journey across the plains began, the
sites OF the military posts, long since
abandoned, will be marked and an
Gent landmarks preserved. The site
#of old Fort Mann In Kansas, which
was surprised by Indians and the gar
rison massacred, and Of old Fort
Bent In Colorado, especially, will be
marked.
Although unused, abandoned and al
most forgotten this famous path Of
commerce the forerunner of 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 quenched by the SHOWS
and rains of third Of century.
Even evidences OF the caches Of the
| early yoyagers of the prairies remain.
The towns which were founded and
Z
the settlements which grew and
thrived upon the caravan traffic have
! passed from the map. All the busy
commerce OF the plains Is gone, but
Gods pastures remain, and. succeed
Ing the Wild Indian and the migratory
bison, have come the peaceful Amer
lean and his herds OF domestic cattle;
The old trail in Rice county. Kan,
crossed the largest deposit Of salt in
the world, which Is 200 miles long and
300 feet thick.
Farming Without Horses.
SnIly county IN Minnesota claims to
have the most perfect example extant
Of q horseless farm, writes an Airing.
ton, MINI, correspo ndent Of the st.
Paul Pioneer Press. The Grosecloses
brothers have q big tract OF land which