Council Grove on the Santa Fe Trail

02/02/2024

In Later years, [Santa Fe] freighters began to use "trails" or "trailers", a second smaller wagon,coupled to the rear of a regular freight wagon. Colonel Homer W. Wheeler, wagonmaster for several wagon trains freighting from the end of the Kansas Pacific railroad to Denver in 1869, recalled that these "large wagons with their trails each held from ten to twelve thousand pounds of freight." In different terrain, the freighters "would cut of the trail' and return for it after all the rough spots had been passed." George Curry remembered a freighting trip made by his Uncle John Riney from the However, the at Granada, Colorado, to New Mexico in 1875:"Uncle John loaded thirty wagons, each with a trailer, and drawn by four-horse teams." However,the available evidence seems to indicate that tandem rigs were less common than the individually drawn wagons, at least on the Santa Fe Trail. Source-Wagons for Santa Fe Trade by Mark L. Gardner

01/05/2024

This will be a multiple part series on lesser known Kansas Forts.
Part-1
Among those graced with the term "Fort were posts of Aubrey, Downer, Monument, Ogallah, Kirwin and Lookout. Of the camps the most prominent was Camp Beecher. Fort Aubry was built to aid in the defense of the Santa Fe Trail during the Indian war of 1865. Its location was sixteen miles west of Choteau's island on the Arkansas river and approximately one hundred miles west of Fort Dodge by the wagon and fifty miles east of Fort Lyon, Colorado. The site of the fort is four miles east of the present town of Syracuse, Kansas. Fort Aubrey was established by Companies D and F of Forty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in September, 1865. The Fort was abandoned April 15, 1866, during a lull in Indian activities along the Old Trail. Source-Kansas Historical Quarterly Vol. 1 1931-1932 To be continued.....Map with Fort Aubry

01/03/2024

The following is from "Rules and Regulations by which to conduct Wagon Trains ( drawn by Oxen on the Plains) 1866

Article Twelfth
Duties of the Cook
It is the duty of the cook,after he has furnished with wood and water, to prepare the meals of his mess. He should depend on none but himself, to prepare the meals of his mess. He should depend on none but himself, to take care of his cooking equipage. When we drive before breakfast, which is a general rule, he should have a cold snack of refreshments for his mess-mates immediately after shaking. It is also his duty to see that the sick of his mess are properly cared for. He should invariably put his mess "kit" in its proper place at night before he retires, also at noon before the cattle are in the corral. Through he is as mentioned in Article 1, excused from all other duties except to yoke, drive and unyoke his team, prepare for yoking, and of course, assist in all other duties while the train is in motion.

12/22/2023