Council Grove Historic District | |
Last Chance Store, a part of the district | |
Location | U.S. 56 and other areas, Council Grove, Kansas |
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Coordinates | 38°39′32″N96°28′44″W / 38.65889°N 96.47889°W Coordinates: 38°39′32″N96°28′44″W / 38.65889°N 96.47889°W |
Built | 1825 |
NRHP reference # | 66000347 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 [1] |
Designated NHLD | May 23, 1963 [2] |
The Council Grove Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District located in Council Grove, Kansas, United States. It consists of six discontiguous areas in the city important in the history of the Santa Fe Trail and American migration to the west in the 19th century. Council Grove was named for the occasion of an 1825 treaty negotiation between the Osage Indians and the US Federal government which guaranteed the Santa Fe caravans safe passage through Osage territory. The landmark was designated in 1963. [2]
Council Grove is a city and county seat in Morris County, Kansas, United States. This city is fifty-five miles southwest of Topeka. It was named after an agreement between European Americans and the Osage Nation about allowing settlers' wagon trains to pass through the area and proceed to the West. Pioneers gathered at a grove of trees so that wagons could band together for their trip west. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,182.
Kansas is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, with its most populated county being Johnson County. Kansas is bordered by Nebraska on the north; Missouri on the east; Oklahoma on the south; and Colorado on the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native Americans who lived along its banks. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the (south) wind" although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison.
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Santa Fe was near the end of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which carried trade from Mexico City.
The area that is now Council Grove was a natural stopping point for westward migrants on the Santa Fe Trail, since it had plentiful water, and was the last adequate source of lumber (needed for maintenance of wagons). It was, however, in territory controlled by the Osage people. Delegates of the United States government met with Osage leaders, and signed an agreement guaranteeing safe passage through Osage territory to migrants. The site of this meeting was in what is now a small park at the center of Council Grove, under a large oak tree. That tree was felled by a storm in 1958, but its stump has been preserved and had a shelter built over it, and is one of the principal features of the district. A second tree, located on the north side of East Main Street just east of the Madonna of the Grove, was believed to be over 300 years old at the time of the landmark designation; [3] it has also succumbed to the elements, with a sheltered tree section set in front of an old stone house.
The exact route of the Santa Fe Trail between Council Grove and points east varied over time, and was channeled onto Main Street when the city was platted. A relatively undisturbed section of wagon ruts dating to the period of migration were found about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Council Grove. [3]
Three buildings dating to the historic period of migration by wagon are also included in the district. The Seth Hays House, located at the southwest corner of Hall and Wood Streets, is a single-story brick house, built about 1855 by Seth Hays, the first white settler in Morris County. Hays's first home was a log cabin on Main Street, which he replaced with the Hays Tavern in 1857, in order to better serve the caravans passing through. The Last Chance Store, located at Main and Chautauqua Streets, is a stone commercial establishment built in 1857. At that time it was on the western outskirts of the community, and was the last retail establishment serving caravans. [4] It was designated an NHL in 1963. [2] [3]
The Last Chance Store was built in 1857 along the Santa Fe Trail at Council Grove, Kansas. Located where the trail crossed the Neosho River, it was the last store in the settlement before the river. It was operated by Tom Hill as a trading post, as well as a post office and a polling place. The structure is constructed of local limestone, irregularly course, with a gable room and some quoining at the corners. The building marks a transition from the Frontier style of construction to the Prairie Vernacular style.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Council Grove Historic District . |
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Morris County, Kansas.
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Pawnee Rock, one of the most famous and beautiful landmarks on the Santa Fe Trail, is located in Pawnee Rock State Park, just north of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, United States. Originally over 150 feet (46 m) tall, railroad construction stripped it of some 15 to 20 feet (6.1 m) in height for road bed material. A memorial monument, picnic area, and pergola have been constructed on the top. From the top of the pergola is a view the Arkansas river valley and the route of the Santa Fe trail. Today it is a prominence rising 50 or 60 feet above the surrounding plains. Matt Field, who traveled the Santa Fe Trail in 1840, later wrote, "Pawnee Rock springs like a huge wart from the carpeted green of the prairie." Traders, soldiers, and emigrants who stopped, carved their names into the brown sandstone. Some of these names are still visible among the graffiti of the more recent visitors.
The Cherokee Trail was a historic overland trail through the present-day U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming that was used from the late 1840s up through the early 1890s. The route was established in 1849 by a wagon train headed to the gold fields in California. Among the members of the expedition were a group of Cherokee. When the train formed in Indian Territory, Lewis Evans of Evansville, Arkansas, was elected Captain. Thus, this expedition is sometimes written as the Evans/Cherokee Train.
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Fort Osage was an early 19th-century factory trading post system run by the United States Government, on the American frontier being located in present-day Sibley, Missouri. The Treaty of Fort Clark was signed with certain members of the Osage Nation in 1808 calling for the creation of Fort Osage. It was one of three forts established by the U.S. Army to establish control over the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase territories. Fort Madison in SE Iowa was built to control trade and pacify Native Americans in the Upper Mississippi River region. Fort Belle Fontaine near St. Louis controlled the mouth of the Missouri. The fort ceased operations in the 1820s as the Osage in subsequent treaties ceded the rest of their land in Missouri. A replica of the fort was rebuilt on the site between 1948 and 1961. The Fort Osage school district, which serves northeast Independence and the surrounding area, was named after it.
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The Barrio de Analco Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District centered at the junction of East De Vargas Street and Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The seven buildings of the district represent one of the oldest clusters of what were basically working-class or lower-class residences in North America, and are in a cross-section of pre-statehood architectural styles. It includes two of the oldest colonial-era buildings in the southwest, the San Miguel Mission church (1710), and the "Oldest House", built in 1620 and now a museum. The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.
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