LASR.net Homepage




Menu

Santa Fe Trail Ruts


category : Pioneer Life
Santa Fe Trail Ruts The historic Santa Fe Trail which carried civilization and commerce between the East and the Mexican settlements of the southwest between 1825 and 1875, traversed much of Kansas. Today one of the best sites remaining to see the actual ruts carved into the virgin sod is in the Dr. Ivan Boyd Prairie Preserve. The four deep parallels swales resulted from the parade of heavily-loaded wagons and thousands of oxen, horses and mules turning northwestward on the Santa Fe Trail as it headed for Palmyra, now Baldwin City. The Trail was along the dirt road just south of the park.


The park also offers a unique opportunity to study native grasses and flowers that once grew free throughout eastern Kansas' in the tall-grass prairies.


Address: 3 miles east of Baldwin

Come visit us in Baldwin City, Kansas

Attractions and Upcoming Events


Battle of Black Jack

This battle was part of the struggle to make Kansas a free state. In May, 1856, Pro-slavery men destroyed buildings and newspaper presses in Lawrence, Free-State headquarters. John Brown's company then killed 5

Baldwin City, KS Battlesites

Baldwin, Historical Marker

Here, and for the next 300 miles west, Highway 56 roughly follows the old Santa Fe Trail, and frequently crosses it. White settlement began in this area in 1854, the year Kansas became a territory, and in 1855

Baldwin City, KS Pioneer Life

Douglas State Lake

The Douglas State Fishing Lake is located two miles northeast of Baldwin just off County Road 1055. The surface area of the lake is 200 acres with approximately 600 acres surrounding the lake.

FISHING

Baldwin City, KS Recreation

The Midland Historic Railroad

The Midland Historic Railroad began operation August 8, 1987 with a restored diesel engine, a 1923 Rock Island commuter coach and a 1950

Baldwin City, KS Railroad History

Things to do Pioneer Life near Baldwin City, KS

Old Schoolhouse/Residence

Lyndon's first school was located in the home on Madison Street shortly after Lyndon was founded in 1870. The house continued...