On September 29 – October 2, 2005, the Quivira Chapter hosted the Santa Fe Trail Association National Symposium in McPherson, Kansas. The Symposium was attended by nearly 400 people, and featured speakers, exhibits and tours of Trail sites.
Symposium speakers and topics included:
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Quivira Chapter Booth at the 2005 Symposium
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• Keynote speaker, Dr. Leo Oliva: “The Changing Santa Fe Trail in 1860’s Kansas”
• Harry Myers: “From Mexico City on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and La Ruta de Missouri, to Independence: The Mexican Trade”
• Inez Ross: “Without a Wagon,” the story of five women who trekked the Trail.
• Dr. Don Blakeslee: “A Tour of Gran Quivira,” Archaeological evidence of Wichita Indians in Kansas before A.D. 1700.
• Dr. Jack & Patricia Fletcher: “The Cherokee Trail: A Major Artery to the Santa Fe Trail 1849 – 1864.”
• Annette Gray: “Journey of the Heart,” a true story about Mamie Aguirre and her freighter husband’s five trips down the Trail.
• John Stratton: “A Pioneer Gone: The Life of Charles O. Fuller in Central Kansas, 1855 – 1879.”
• Dr. David Clapsaddle: “Satank, the Bane of the Santa Fe Trail or Hero of the Kiowa.”
Another highlight of the Symposium was the opportunity for participants to enjoy numerous guided field trips to sites along the Trail in the Quivira and neighboring Cottonwood Crossing Chapter areas:
Coronado and Quivira Indian Tour - The tour visited the 160-foot serpent, named the Itaglio and Peverly’s Petroglyphs. The tour also included Father Padilla’s Cross, a monument that stands for the very first cross Coronado’s men placed on the Great Plains.
Military Tour – The tour visited Fort Harker and several remaining stone buildings that comprised the fort. Following the military road, the tour stopped at Barton County Junior College to view Indian clothing, artifacts and weapons, along with military uniforms, accouterments, and cavalry tack of the Indian War period.
The return trip paralleled the Santa Fe Trail, passing the site of Fort Zarah, Plum Buttes, and the Ellinwood Campground.
East Santa Fe Trail Tour – The east tour visited the site of Empire, on Running Turkey Creek, where Fuller's Ranch was located, and Ed Miller's grave in the Jones Cemetery near Canton. The tour also viewed the probable site of French Frank's Place and the accompanying Trail ruts, and one of the possible locations of Cottonwood Hole. The tour included a dedication of the new interpretive kiosk at the Cottonwood Crossing of the Trail, and a look at the deep wagon swales coming from the crossing. Another stop was at Lost Spring, a popular watering stop on the Trail.
West Santa Fe Trail Tour – The west tour highlights included the Elyria Indian Treaty site, the Berg Cottonwood, and Joe Swanson’s ruts in his pasture at the Little Arkansas Crossing. Camp Grierson, home of galvanized Yankees and the Buffalo Soldiers, the Stone Corral Site and the Marker Cottonwood were also on the tour agenda. The tour passed Jarvis (Chavez) Creek, where Jose Antonio Chavez was robbed and murdered by Missouri ruffians. The tour also stopped at the museum in Lyons, where tour participants viewed a wagon box from the doomed Chavez wagon, Buffalo Bill's Well and the Cow Creek Crossing where Buffalo Bill Matthewson operated a trading post, and Ralph's Ruts, where deep swales from the wagon trains have been carefully preserved in the pasture owned by Ralph Hathaway. The tour ended at the Allison Peacock Trading Post on Walnut Creek.
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Ralph Hathaway (of Ralph's Ruts) with Britt (left) and Linda Colle (right) |
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Wilmer and Hazel Ekholm |
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SFTA Members Hoof It Up on the Last Night! |
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