Whether you’re up for a road trip or sticking to surfing the web, there are many ways to explore the physical remnants and cultural heritage of the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas, which saw heavy trail traffic from 1821 to 1880.
Driving tours
The Santa Fe Trail Association is divided into segments, each represented by individual chapters. There are nine chapters in Kansas and several have designed self-guided auto tours of trail highlights (find a page for each chapter at santafetrail.org). One such option is the Wet/Dry Routes Chapter’s tour that includes stops at 15 markers along the Wet Route from Larned to Dodge City.
There are also driving tours designed by communities and attractions, including a 22-site map of wayside markers available at Fort Leavenworth, the oldest continuously active Army post west of the Mississippi, and a 30-mile trip through Cimarron National Grassland with several trail-related outdoor exhibits and stops, highlighted by ruts and a view of the Point of Rocks navigational landmark.
You can also follow the Santa Fe Trail via the 96 granite markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution from 1902 to 1906, when traders still lived along the route and helped the organization place the markers on the actual trail. The Santa Fe Trail Center Museum & Research Library has resources for locating the markers (santafetrailcenter.org/dar-markers).
The ultimate driving tour, of course, would be following the entire Santa Fe National Historic Trail, one of 19 trails designated by the National Park Service.
Historic sites and attractions
Websites for the NPS’ Santa Fe National Historic Trail (nps.gov/safe) and the SFTA (santafetrail.org) have interactive maps showing historic sites, interpretive centers, museums and other attractions by state.
The NPS describes nearly 50 sites in Kansas, from Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site — the only remaining stage station open to the public — on the edge of the Kansas City metro area in eastern Kansas to the Cimarron National Grassland in the southwest corner. Also among the sites are frontier forts established to protect commerce along the trail, including Fort Larned, now a national historic site with a museum and several well-preserved buildings as well as the nearby Santa Fe Trail Center Museum & Research Library.
In one of the state’s most notable trail towns, Council Grove, there are 10 Santa Fe National Historic Trail sites and another 15 sites identified by the city and included on a self-guided history tour. Two are state historic sites currently closed while being reinterpreted with new exhibits that should reopen later this year: Last Chance Store Museum and Kaw Mission Museum.
Among the more immersive experiences is walking through untilled prairie alongside large ruts, or swales, left by freight wagons traveling the trail. Two of the most well-defined sets are at Ralph’s Ruts, four miles west of Chase, and Black Jack Ruts near Baldwin City, where a footpath was recently created.
The Quivira Chapter has a passport and site book (2021santafetrailkansas.com/get-your-passport) to encourage visiting central Kansas’ Santa Fe Trail sites. Print off or pick up the booklet at participating attractions in Barton, McPherson and Rice counties. A fully stamped passport by the end of 2021 enters you in a grand prize drawing.
Online
Check online — websites and Facebook pages — for virtual tours and digital collections at trail attractions. A new digital tour of the 35 miles of trail running across Rice County in central Kansas is scheduled to be available this year via a kiosk at the Coronado Quivira Museum in Lyons and on its website, cqmuseum.org.
Some chapters have been hosting monthly virtual programs related to the trail that they also post online. Check the event schedule at santafetrail.org. You can also watch video segments of interviews and footage shot along the trail by Dave Kendall for his upcoming documentary “The Road to Santa Fe” at prairiehollow.net or facebook.com/PrairieHollow.
Geocaching
The Santa Fe National Historic Trail GeoTour includes 70 geocaches that use GPS coordinates to guide you to important sites in all five states. Each geocache profile describes the location’s connection to the trail, and many of the containers hold maps and information to help you explore more sites on the trail. Learn more at geocaching.com/play/geotours/santa-fe-trail.
Events
The SFTA and communities along the route plan to continue commemorating early trail development in upcoming years, from Becknell’s return trip to Missouri from Santa Fe in 2022 to 2025’s 200th anniversary of the government survey that legitimized the route, treaties with the Kaw and the Osage tribes and the first Mexican traders traveling east via the trail.
Events have already started this year and more are regularly being added. SFTA chapters and towns have websites dedicated to the anniversary and you’ll find links to many of those sites on the trail-wide association’s website, santafetrail.org and its companion site santafetrail200.org. Be sure to confirm details before attending.
Activities range from online to in-person and from annual fairs and festivals adopting bicentennial themes to special one-time events. Here’s a sampling of five Kansas events in upcoming months:
- May 27-30, Santa Fe Trail Days in Larned: parade, concert, rodeo, food/craft vendors, ice cream social, hunt for lost “treasure box” of Susan Shelby Magoffin, an early traveler of the trail, and more, santafetraildays.org
- June 5, Trails and Trailblazers: festival activities in downtown Baldwin City, tours of nearby Black Jack Battlefield, dedication of new path circling Black Jack Ruts and more santafetraildays.org
- July 23-24, Eastern McPherson County & Marion County Santa Fe Trail Days: displays, speakers, reenactments, walking tours and more in McPherson, Galva, Canton as well as parts of Marion County, www.2021santafetrailkansas.com
- 14, Little Arkansas Rendezvous: programs in Rice and McPherson counties focused on making a river crossing and life on the trail for buffalo soldiers, Native peoples, traders and other trail travelers, www.2021santafetrailkansas.com
- 17-18, Rendezvous at Council Grove: “Voices of the Wind People Pageant,” participation of the Kaw Tribe, Mountain Men Exposition, antique wagon show and more, santafetrail200.com