"THE PRE-WET ROUTE"

The regular route of the Santa Fe Trail ran southwest from Pawnee Rock to Ash Creek Crossing and on to Pawnee Fork Crossing. For the sake of rational convenience, this segment of the trail is called The Pre-Wet Route. In this instance, pre has reference to location, not time.

A portion of the Lt. Emory's 1847 Map showing The Pre-Wet Route from Ash Creek Crossing to Pawnee Fork Crossing.

Lt. Emory's 1847 map showing the Pre Wet Route

Site B-1 -- Interpretive Marker Text

Ash Creek Crossing Marker 1998

BRANCH: The Pre-Wet Route
DESIGNATION: Ash Creek Crossing
LOCATION: From 14th Street and Broadway in Larned, Kansas proceed east on K-156/U.S. 56, 2.7 miles, left 1.7 miles, and left .4 miles to the marker on the right.
GPS AT MARKER: N38 13.952 -- W99 04.003
TOPOGRAPHICAL EVIDENCE: Ash Creek
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: None
USGS AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS: Ash Creek Crossing
MODERN DAY MAP: Santa Fe Trail Map Pawnee County, Kansas
TOPOGRAPHIC MAP: Topographic Map
HISTORIC DESCRIPTION: Crossing of Ash Creek on the established route of the Santa Fe Trail and site of the short-lived trading ranch operated by Orville (William) Thompson in 1860.
DISTANCE: From Pawnee Rock, 5 miles.

Excerpted from Table of Distances on the Santa Fe Trail
("Kansas" Section) from Independence, MO.
John Bingham--1848
To Miles
Pawnee Rock 15
Ash Creek 5
Pawnee Fork 5

Louise Barry, The Beginning of the West: Annals of the Kansas Gateway to the American West 1540-1854. (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1972), 814. Hereafter cited as Bingham.

COMMENTS: The marker is placed at the location where evidence of the crossing is evident on both sides of the creek in a 1949 photograph. Subsequent to that date, the landowner altered the course of the stream destroying all evidence of the crossing. The marker is situated 1/8 mile northwest of the crossing site indicated on the original township survey map.
LEGAL DESCRIPTION: SE 1/4, Section 10, T-21-S, R-16-W, Pawnee County, Kansas.

Ash Creek Crossing Plaque

Ash Creek Crossing 1947
Photo Courtesy of Clay Ward Studio

Township 21 South of Range 16 West, Pawnee County, Kansas Township 21 South of Range 16 West, Pawnee County, Kansas

Pre-Wet Route
Adapted from the 1870 Map of Kansas
Compiled by 1st Lt. Henry Jackson.
1870 Map of Kansas

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