Newsletter Vol 6 No 2

"TRACES"
Wet/Dry Routes Chapter
Santa Fe Trail
Newsletter
Vol. 6 "1999" No.2

The Wet/Dry Routes Chapter met for its Winter meeting on January 3, 1999 at the Municipal Building in Kinsley, Kansas. Reports were given by the Mapping/Marking, Chuck wagon dinner, T-shirt and Seminar Committees. Officers for 1999 were elected as follows: Rusti Gardner, President; Howard Losey, Vice President; Ida Yeager, Secretary/Treasurer; and David Clapsaddle, Program Director.
Appointed to the Faye Anderson Committee were: Alice Clapsaddle, LeVeda Cross, Ann Warner, Joyce Losey, and Virginia Walters. Howard Losey was appointed to the Mapping/Marking Committee, and Janice Klein was appointed to serve as the 1999 judge for the Chapter's Kansas History Day Award.
In other business, the Chapter voted;

To expend $500 for five interpretive markers;

To prepare and serve the lunch for the Fort Larned Old Guard meeting on April 24th;

To sponsor Shirley Stein for the Symposium's Teacher Award and Sibley's Camp for the landowner's award;

To begin mailing 200 copies of the Traces at bulk rate.

A special award was presented to Mac Zimmerman of St. John, Kansas for his assistance with the Chapter's internet efforts. Clara Goodrich was honored with the Faye Anderson Award. Following the business session, a well received program was presented by Jerry Thomas, Manhattan artist. The Chapter's Spring meeting is scheduled for April 11, 1999 at the Garfield School Auditorium, in Garfield, Kansas.
Spring Meeting
The spring meeting will be conducted at the Garfield School Auditorium April 11th. Come and enjoy lunch at 12:30. Elk is the main fare. Bring a covered dish. Tableware and drinks will be furnished. Following the business meeting, a tour of The Original Dry Route to The Caches will be conducted. Please dress comfortably and prepare to join up with other members in a car pool so as to reduce the number of vehicles to lowest number possible. Several vans will be available.
New Members
Ed and Jan Boyd, Larned, Ks.
Interpretive Markers
The Wet/Dry Routes Chapter voted in the January meeting to place interpretive markers at five locations.
The markers measuring 18 by 24 inches will be made of high intensity aluminum and mounted on cedar 4 x 4 posts.
Locations to be marked include:

The Pawnee Fork Crossing near Larned, Kansas

Forks in Santa Fe Trail, Pawnee County, Kansas

The Junction of The Fort Larned Military Road and The Wet Route at Coon Creek crossing west of Garfield, Kansas

Roadside park in Offerle, Kansas

The Junction of The Wet/Dry Routes east of Fort Dodge in Ford County, Kansas

Plans call for an additional five such markers to placed in the year 2000.
More Ruts
Thanks to Larry Mix and the assistance of satellite photographs, three more ruts have been identified on The Original Dry Route which ran to The Caches two miles west of present Dodge City, Kansas. One rut is located just east of Bellefont, Kansas; another is located near Spearville, Kansas; and another west of Offerle, Kansas. Hopefully other ruts between Spearville and The Caches can be located.
Hancock Expedition Traveling Seminar
A traveling seminar dedicated to the 1867 Hancock Expedition will be conducted on April 17-18, 1999. Beginning at Larned, the participants will travel to Fort Riley to follow the route Hancock pursued. Stops will be made at Chapman, Salina, Fort Harker, and Fort Zarah. Following the night at Great Bend, the tour will continue westward to visit Fort Larned and various sites en route to the Cheyenne/Sioux village in present Ness County destroyed by order of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock in April 1867. Lunch will be served at the village site. For further information, contact David Clapsaddle, 215 Mann, Larned, KS 67550, 316/285-3295. At this writing, only two spaces are available.
Faye Anderson Award
Recognized for her unofficial work as songstress and official work as historian, Clara Goodrich was presented the Faye Anderson award at the January 3rd Chapter meeting. Our congratulations to Clara, a most deserving member.
The Traces Mailing List Expended
The Chapter is in the process of obtaining a bulk mailing permit. The lower cost per individual mailing will help the Traces to be sent to 200 addresses. All Santa Fe Trail officers will be added to the list, also museums and other interested organizations. Nominations for addition to the mailing list should be sent to;
Eligible candidate should be museums, historical societies, libraries, etc. Individuals wishing to receive the newsletter should join the chapter.
This Newsletter is the official publication of The Wet/Dry Routes Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail.
Annual subscriptions are obtained through membership in the Chapter.
Dues are $10.00 annually, single or family.
Editor: David Clapsaddle
Typist: Ida K. Yeager
President: Rusti Gardner
Vice President: Howard Losey
Secretary-Treasure: Ida K. Yeager
Program Director: David Clapsaddle
Web Page Address:
www.santafetrailresearch.com/
Fort Larned Old Guard Annual Meeting
See enclosed flyer April 24, 1999 on the Calendar Of Events Web Page.
Clapsaddle Article to be Published
Your editor has received notice that his article "Chronology Displaced; One Day Lost In the Hancock Accident" has been accepted for publication in the Outpost, the newsletter of the Fort Larned Old Guard. The article will appear in the next issue, late April or early May. In the last issue of Traces, it was reported that your editor's article "The Dry Route Revisited" was to be published in the Spring issue of The Overland Journal. The article will appear in the Summer issue.
Scouts Succeed
Kris Walden of Lewis, Kansas recently visited our Web Site. Mrs. Waldren is the mother of Matt Waldren, one of the seven Boy Scouts who completed Eagle Scout projects in conjunction with the Chapter. Assisting Matt with his project was the Webmaster of The Wet/Dry Routes Chapter Web Site, Larry Mix. Since that initial visit, other communications have revealed the following as to the scouts involved and their subsequent endeavors. Matt Waldren is a junior at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Derrick Barnes is attending the University of Kansas; Aaron Cross, Fort Hays State University; Travis Westrom, University of Chicago; Bart Westrom, Northwestern University; Scott Divis, Fort Hays State University; and Josh Woolard, Kansas State University.
Your editor would like to think that the Chapter could claim some responsibility for the continued success of these young men, but each of them was well on his road to responsible adulthood long before this Eagle project began. This, in large part, due to his family's support. Regardless, to all the Scouts and their families, we are please to have shared an important part of your life.
Sibley's Camp Raffle
Sibley's Camp is selling tickets for a raffle to raise funds for the operation of the historic site in Larned, Kansas. To be raffled is a framed copy of the painting presently being prepared by Jerry Thomas of the Cheyenne/Sioux village destroyed by order of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock in April 1867 in present Ness County, Kansas. The tickets cost $5.00 each. The proprietors of Sibley's Camp will appreciate the Chapter members support of this project.
Did You Know?
Not until the 1840's did freight wagons used on the Santa Fe Trail have a braking system. Prior to that time, the wheels would be sometimes locked in place by chairs when the wagon was making steep descent.
The Pawnee River
This is the first in a series of articles prepared by your editor concerning use of an often mentioned stream associated with the Sante Fe Trail, The Pawnee River in Kansas.
From its headwaters in northwest Gray County, Kansas, the Pawnee River flows some fifteen miles northeast to bisect the southeast corner of Finney County and continues eastward through Hodgeman County before making an abrupt northern turn to clip the southern corner of Ness County. From that point, the stream turned to the southeast returning to Hodgeman County and thence eastward through Pawnee County where it empties into the Arkansas River near Larned. Along its ninety-odd mile course are located several sites of historic note: The Cheyenne/Sioux village in Ness County destroyed by order of Major General Hancock in 1867; the Pawnee Fork crossing on the Fort Hays/Fort Dodge Road where the trading ranche established in 1869 was later operated by George Duncan; Fort Larned in Pawnee County, established as Camp on Pawnee Fork in 1859; and The Dry Route crossing of the Sante Fe Trail three miles east of the fort where Samuel Parker established trading ranch later owner by A. H. Boyd. Other Pawnee County sites include the location of Parker's original ranch six miles east of The Dry Route Crossing and the crossing of The Wet Route on the Santa Fe Trail about one half mile further east.
Beyond the significance of the sites mentioned in the above, the stream provided a pathway for historic expeditions. In 1845, Captain John C. Fremont left the Santa Fe Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee and followed its course westward to its headwaters before turning northwest to the Smoky Hill River. In 1852, Lt. Israel Woodruff conducted a reconnaissance of the area between the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers to locate sites for military posts and new route for the Santa Fe Trail. In so doing, he followed the Pawnee southwest toward the Arkansas. In 1855, Lieutenant Francis T. Bryan led an expedition from Fort Riley to survey a new road to the Arkansas. At the Smoky Hill crossing near present Kanapolis, Kansas, the expedition turned southwest to Walnut Creek and on to the Pawnee, tracing the latter to its headwaters before turning south to strike the Arkansas at recently abandoned Fort Atkinson.
In connection with the Woodruff expedition, the Pawnee River (most often known by the time as Pawnee Fork) took on a new designation. In exploring the area, Woodruff identified three streams which he called the north fork, the middle fork, and the south fork. The north fork, he called Heth's Branch honor of Second Lieutenant Henry Heth, then stationed at Fort Atkinson. This stream is now called the Pawnee River. The middle fork which emptied into the north fork was named Buckner's Creek in honor of Captain Simon B. Buckner, also assigned to Fort Atkinson. The south fork which empties into Buckner Creek was labeled Schaaf in honor of Brevet Second Lieutenant John T. Schaaf. another Fort Atkinson officer.