Finding the Way: Gardner Junction

Gardner Junction at sunset - Santa Fe left, Oregon-California right

When we are traveling about, we often gauge where we are by intersections between roads.  Major roads will often serve a variety of destinations, but eventually you have to decide when to diverge from the major road.  The Santa Fe-Oregon-California Trails had many starting points and many ways to get there, but eventually you connected to the main road.  When starting from Independence, the western destinations of Santa Fe, Oregon, and California could all be reached by traveling in a general westward direction.  Eventually you would have to turn right and head more northward to get to Oregon and California.  From Independence, MO one of the major trail branches would take you southwest past present day Olathe, KS.  The trails would split past present day Gardner, KS at a site now called Gardner Junction, which is also where the Westport and Independence branches of the trails merged.

Our wagon

One of my side research interests is how our current transportation routes maintain the memory of geographic features that are no longer visible and also maintain the memory of old transport routes.  This junction is no exception.  US-56 roughly follows the Santa Fe Trail route through much of Kansas.  At Gardner Junction, West 183rd Street roughly follows the diverging Oregon-California Trail to the northwest.  The old trails are being followed by roads improved for farm, truck and automotive use.  Railroads will also follow the old trails.  To the left of the road in this picture are tracks for the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad, which parallel US-56 through Kansas.

In their words

“This is a great camping place for both Oregon and Santa Fe teams, as the forks of the road are only about a Mile and a half back and the Oregon Teams can easily turn on to their trail again.” - H.M.T Powell 1849 

"This morning we passed the road to Oregon, that leaves, about eight miles from Round Grove, the Santa Fe Road, and turns to the right towards the Kansas (river). A way post had been put there, marked: 'Road to Oregon'. . . . " - Dr. Frederick A. Wislizenus, 24 May 1846

"About 4 o'clock, p.m., I reached the point where I supposed the Oregon Trail diverged from the Santa Fe' road. It was raining copiously. . . . . a bright rainbow was formed in the east. . . . ." -  Edwin Bryant, 13 May 1846

"about no(o)n to day left the Sant a fee trace these are two of the longest roads that are perhaps in the world the one to Sant Afee and the other to Oregon doubled teams nearly all the way Both teams Swamped down and had to unload our team breakeing an axeltree" - James Clyman, 17 May 1844

Why branch here?

James Clyman

Why is this the branch point for the trails? On one level it is because someone came this way first.  The trail to Santa Fe, Mexico was pioneered in 1792 by Pedro Vial, when Spain held title to most of the American West, and then came into formal use in 1821 as the US established trade with a newly independent Mexico.  William Becknell from Missouri made the first foray into Santa Fe, which had been jealously guarded by the Spanish.  Fur trappers were exploring the northwestern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase and pushing claims to the Oregon country.  Two of those traders, William Sublette and Moses Harris left Salt Lake Valley on 01 January 1827 in an attempt to reach St. Louis in time to bring back a wagon of supplies for the following year. On the trip, they traveled south when they hit the Kansas River and struck the Santa Fe Trail here, setting a precedent for the trail.

While this marker is near the junction, it is worth noting that our modern highway system shepherds traffic a lot more tightly than the old trails ever did.  Both the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon-California Trails were general paths in which you could weave hither and yon in any number of ways.  The trails were a few miles wide at places.  People made their own way, especially if they thought they could shave off distance or get around slow moving traffic.  I can just hear it "By god, these people travel either three miles an hour or seven miles an hour.  I can't get around the morons doing three because I'll get hit by the maniacs doing seven.  Then the dirty so and so's that blew past me at seven slow down to four.  Why can they not just go an even five?" Some things never change.

The Road Not Taken

So the poem has nothing to do with this landmark.  People were pretty set on where they were going to go at this point and they didn't feel like their life was altered in any way by choosing one way over the other.  They weren't looking back on life later and saying "only if" for every inconsequential decision. They might have regretted taking Hastings Cutoff or trying to cross mountains instead of wintering at lower elevations, but largely they did not regret taking the journey.  That doesn't stop these words from popping into my head every time I pass this point:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Thanks, Mr. Frost, I get it.  Crap happens and except for a very few decisions, it just doesn't matter what you decide to do.  The arc of your life is in large measure determined by forces out of your control.  I've always suspected it was so, and now I know.

Getting There

Take US-56 west through Gardner towards Baldwin City, KS.  The park is about three miles west of Gardner, KS.  The turnout is on the north side of the road.  Well marked with signs.  A kiosk and a short trail with interpretive signs is here.

Waypoint: 38.796675 N; 94.961763 W

Street Address: 32455 W 183rd Street, Gardner, KS 66030

Further Reading

National Park Service: Gardner Junction

Finding the Way: Chimney Rock

When heading on a journey to a new place, I always try to find someone that has been there before, either a friend or an article and find out how to find the way.  Landmarks are outstanding ways to navigate.  They help you see where to go and how far you have gone.  Plus they tend to be impressive structures, giving a body something at which to look.

A great deal of finding your way on the Oregon-California Trail was fairly simple: follow the wagon trails.  Basically, from St. Joseph, MO you struck out due west until you hit the Little Blue River in Kansas Territory just northwest of Marshall's Crossing (Palmetto City/Marysville, KS).  From Kansas City (Independence or Westport), you basically stayed south of the Kansas River, then worked your way over to the Little Blue River.  From there you basically hung an up north to the Platte River and followed it west to Fort Laramie.

Along the Platte River, the prairie spreads out in front of you like a sea of grass.  The boundaries of the river valley are bluffs to the north and south.  In places, portions of the bluffs have been eroded free and are left as freestanding geological features.  These isolated rock formations can be seen for miles.  Many emigrants on the Oregon-California Trail indicate that they could see Chimney Rock from 30 miles (about 3 days travel) away.  I can vouch for a distance of at least 20 miles personally.  The 325 foot formation rises 480 feet above the level of the Platte River banks, with a spire of about 120 feet.  This feature was so striking that almost every emigrant diary from this trip mentions passing it.

 "About 10 A.M. the Chimney Rock was discovered, some forty miles distant. I saw it. It looked like a small spire, standing out in bold relief against the sky. Two days more we reached this celebrated rock, and arrived to it about noon. Its height was variously estimated by our guessing company, from two to eight hundred feet. I suppose it to be three hundred feet high. It is round, gently sloping up, and coming to a point at the base of the chimney, 250 feet; then the chimney commences rising in an oblong square, of 10 by 20 feet, 100 feet more. " - Charles Stanton 28 June 1846

Landmark for the ages

This was part of the territory occupied by the Lakota (Sioux) Indians.  It is clear that, lacking chimneys, they were not the source of the current name.  Being grounded in nature, they saw instead a potent symbol of life, Hehaka, the elk.  More specifically, an elk's penis.  Some early names were sanitized for European tastes to Elk Tower, Elk Brick or Elk Peak.

Robert Stuart, a partner of  John Jacob Astor in the American Fur Company, traveled through this region, describing what would become the Oregon Trail from the Columbia River, through the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains to the Platte River and the Missouri River in 1813.  The name "Chimney Rock" seems to have been used first by Joshua Pilcher in 1827.  Pilcher was a trapper who became the owner of the Missouri Fur Company after Manuel Lisa died and followed William Clark as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Rock of Ages

The sediments that make up Chimney Rock date from about 28 million years old on the bottom to about 20 million years at the top.  They are clays and sandstones deposited in rivers intermixed with layers of volcanic ash.  The base is composed mostly of Brule Clay from the White River Group, which is noted for its fossil mammals extending northwards.  This material forms part of the Badlands area of South Dakota.  The formation is capped by Arikaree sandstone, which is relatively hard and resists erosion due to rain.  This sandstone cap keeps the underlying sediments from being washed away and generates pillars of sediments, such as those evidenced at Chimney Rock and Courthouse Rock and Jailhouse Rock to the southeast.

It is apparent that this feature is eroding.  The spire stands about 30 feet shorter than it did in the 1800's.  The abbreviated height is evident when viewing a photograph of Chimney Rock from 1906 during the Ezra Meeker trail commemoration.  At this time, the old-timers agreed that the spire had lost height compared to the 1840s.  In the 1990s a lightning strike resulted in about 5 feet of rock falling off of the top of the spire.  How long will it take to wash away?  None of us around will likely ever see it happen.  Chimney Rock is one of the recognizable symbols of Nebraska, appearing on the state's license plates and the commemorative quarter for Nebraska issued in 2006.  At very least, this symbol lasted longer than that pictured on New Hampshire's quarter.  The Old Man of the Mountain was a rock formation on Cannon Mountain featured in the 2000 quarter series.  It collapsed and slid down the mountain on 04 May 2003.

Getting There

You can't help but see this landmark from US-26 or NE-92 traveling east from Scottsbluff/Gehring or on US-26 west from Ogalalla.  These highways are modern approximations of branches of the Oregon-California Trail, which was really an interconnecting network of parallelish roads.  There are trails that will take you to the base of Chimney Rock.  Make sure to dress for brambles and wear insect repellent during wet years.  When Ben and I were there in Summer 2015, you could hear an eerie hum from the thrum of the mosquitoes. Don't worry about getting there too late.  Apparently, they light up Chimney Rock at night so that it is very visible.  There is a Visitor's Center on the road up to Chimney Rock (follow the signs) that costs about $2 per person.  Check ahead for hours - they change.

Waypoint: Latitude: 41.703836 N; Longitude: 103.348037 W

Further Reading:

Nebraska's Popular Chimney Rock Eroding

Chimney Rock National Historic Site - Nebraska State Historical Society

Making a Mark: 1842 Fremont-Carson Expedition

Replica of Fremont/Carson inscription

Exploration is a quintessentially human activity.  The questions "What is over the next hill?  Across that lake?  Down that river?" have driven us to inhabit every continent save for Antarctica.  With each trip across a continent, more and more information was collected about the people, geography, geology and biology of the region.  The best known of these explorations of the United States is the May 1804-September 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition.

While each of these expeditions is recorded in diaries, maps, drawings, field notes and specimens collected, few of these expeditions left any direct evidence of their travels.  The desire to say "I was here" is another unique behavior of humans.  We leave memorial markers for those that die, write our names on places that we have visited.  We have placed markers even on space probes to let unknown others know that we exist (I still say that is a bad idea).  In Rock Creek Station State Historical Park near Fairbury, NE there is a monument to the lost signatures of two of the United States' best-known explorers: John Frémont and Kit Carson.

John Frémont

John Fremont as a young man

John C. Frémont, born in 1813, was the illegitimate son of Louis Rene Frémon and Mrs. Ann Whiting Pryor.  Despite the social hindrance of illegitimacy and his father's early death (1818), Frémont proved to be a dashing, charismatic figure and was able to secure support from a number of individuals.  John attended the College of Charleston from 1829-1831, but attendance at class was not his strong suite.  He did show interest in mathematics and natural sciences, which enabled him to gain a job teaching mathematics on the USS Natchez.  In 1838, he gained a commission as a second lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers.  In 1838-1839, Frémont participated in expeditions mapping the area between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers with Joseph Nicollet.

By 1841, Frémont had caught the fancy of Jessie Benton, who happened to be the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton.  Sen. Benton is best known as a proponent of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States should own, control and inhabit the entire North American continent. Benton pushed through plans to have surveys performed of the Oregon Trail, Oregon country, the Great Basin, and the area from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California and secured the leadership of each of these expeditions to his son-in-law.  This earned John C. Frémont the nickname of "The Pathfinder".  He would later ride this fame to a nomination for the presidency, promotion to major general and command of the Department of the West during the Civil War.

1842 Expedition

Post Office built of native sandstone near Rock (Wyeth) Creek

Colonel Frémont's 1842 expedition began from St. Louis, Missouri with total party of 25, mostly composed of Creole/French voyageur's that were familiar with the terrain and used to the privations of long journeys.  He engaged Christopher "Kit" Carson as the scout for the expedition, since Carson was familiar with the area.  The expedition traveled from St. Louis and gathered at Cyprian Choteau's house on the Kansas River, departing there on 10 June 1842.  They traveled to the Santa Fe Trail, then proceeded through what is now Lawrence and Topeka, KS.  Upon reaching the Big Blue River, they turned north.  On 22 June, the expedition reached Wyeth (now Rock) Creek, where boulders of ferruginous (red-orange) sandstone were in the creek below bluff of sandstone.

Oregon Trail wagon swale by Rock Creek

From here the expedition traveled up the Little Blue River to the Platte River.  Frémont split his party in two, sent one part up the North Fork of the Platte and he went with a group along the South Fork of the Platte River.  The expedition reunited at Fort Laramie and mapped the Oregon Trail through South Pass, the most commonly used path through the continental divide by traders and emigrants.  This pass had been used by Euro-Americans as early as 1812 and rediscovered independently several times over the years.  Frémont returned to St. Louis using the Platte River as a travel route.

The Marker

While stopped along Wyeth Creek, Kit Carson and Col. Frémont inscribed their names into the soft sandstone of the bluff.  This site became well known to Jefferson County, NE residents and was located about one-half mile from Rock Creek Station in an area known as Quivera Park.  The inscription remained until the 1970s when high water rushing down the creekbed undercut the bluff and the inscribed rock broke free and was lost.  In 1940, the Daughters of the American Revolution had already placed a marker with a replica of the inscriptions made using photographs near the site of the inscription.  The marker is mounted on Sioux Quartzite, brought by glaciers to Nebraska from Minnesota during the Great Ice Age.

Getting There

Gen. John Fremont - Matthew Brady Photo c.1862

From US-77, turn west onto NE-8.  From NE-8, turn north onto 573rd Ave, then east onto 710th Rd, then follow the signs to Rock Creek Station State Historical Park.  There is an entry fee ($5 daily entry or $25 yearly sticker for all Nebraska State Parks) for the park and admission to the museum on grounds.

Waypoint: Latitude: 40.113760 N; Longitude: 97.060900 W
Street Address:  57426 710th Road, Fairbury, NE 68352

Kit Carson c. 1860

Further Reading

The Great Pathfinder: 1842

1842 Expedition Notes dictated by Fremont

Fremont's Expeditions of the American West