TROY Two miles west is Troy, named for the famous city of Greek antiquity. Following the organization of Doniphan county in 1855 Troy was named the county seat and business began there in 1856....
BALDWIN 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...
BATTLE OF BLACK JACK The 'battle' was part of the struggle to make Kansas a free state. In May, 1856, Proslavery men destroyed buildings and newspaper presses in Lawrence, Free-State headquarters....
LAWRENCE Lawrence was established in 1854 by the Emigrant Aid Company, a New England organization formed to prevent the new Kansas territory from becoming a slave state. When the first...
LECOMPTON CAPITAL OF KANSAS TERRITORY 2 In 1855, the new town of Lecompton was named the capital of Kansas Territory. President James Buchanan appointed a governor and officials to...
BATTLE OF COON CREEK A battle between U.S. troops and Plains Indians occurred near this area along the Santa Fe Trail in 1848 and inspired stories and legends for years to come. An army train of...
FORT HAYS This noted frontier post was established in 1865 to protect military roads, guarding the mails and defending construction gangs on the Union Pacific Railway. Fort Hays also served as...
HISTORIC KANSAS The rolling land in this area was once sheep country, but now cattle roam here. These stone fence posts found are examples of the many still in use in this portion of Kansas. In...
SMOKY HILLS REGION This region of Kansas contains the Smoky Hills, an area of rolling hills, occasional mesas, and buttes, with striking outcroppings. Pawnee Rock, Coronado Heights, and Rock City...
BEERSHEBA In 1882 the first Jewish agricultural colony in Kansas was established when some 60 recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia, sponsored by the Hebrew Union Agricultural Society,...
FORT DODGE Fort Dodge, named for Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, was established here in 1865. It was a supply depot and base of operations against warring Plains Tribes. Custer, Sheridan, Miles,...
FORT DODGE-CAMP SUPPLY MILITARY ROAD The Fort Dodge Camp Supply Military Road passed several hundred feet west of this marker. The route was established in 1868 during General Phillip...
THE ROAD TO SANTA FE The Santa Fe trail, extending 750 miles from the Kansas City area to the old Spanish settlement of Santa Fe, was the great overland trade route of the 1820's to 1870s....
FORT RILEY JUNCTION CITY Approximately 7 miles ahead is the southern edge of Fort Riley, established as a military post in 1853. Horace Greeley, noted editor of the New York Tribune, visited the...
HISTORICAL KANSAS Abilene, 20 miles ahead, was a cowtown of major importance in the history of the American West. During 1867-1871 much of the town was a mixture of bawling Longhorn cattle...
HISTORICAL KANSAS Five miles to the northeast the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers unite to form the Kansas or Kaw. At the junction, the city which bears the name, was founded in 1857. Before...
NICODEMUS Nicodemus, established in 1877, was one of several African American settlements in Kansas. The 350 settlers came from Kentucky to escape the problems of the oppression of the “Jim...
FRONTIER IN LINCOLN COUNTY The 1860s brought ever- growing numbers of travelers and settlers into Indian lands in Kansas. Taking advantage of tribal divisions, the U.S. government negotiated...
CHOUTEAUS ISLAND In the spring of 1816 Auguste P. Chouteau's hunting party traveling east with a winter's catch of furs was attacked near the Arkansas river by 200 Pawnees. Retreating to what was...
BIRTHPLACE OF FARM CREDIT This 280 acres was collateral for the nation's first Federal Land Bank loan made on April 10, 1917 to farmer- stockman A. L. Stockwell. In those days, farmers and...