American Discovery Trail: Kansas

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Contact Us Site Map Home		Kansas Leawood (MO line) to Lawrence After crossing into Kansas, the route through the metropolitan area is on a combination of low volume roads, some with sidewalks, and a developing system of trails in Leawood, Overland Park, Lenexa, and Shawnee. One interesting part of this route is Corporate Woods, where the trail winds between the many buildings that make up the business park. Many of the people who work here walk or ride their bicycles from home. After passing Shawnee Mission Park, the trail stays south of the Kansas River and heads west through the towns of Clearview City, Eudora, and into Lawrence. Lawrence to Herington Both the Oregon and Santa Fe national historic trails pass through Douglas County. The ADT generally follows the route of the Santa Fe Trail for the remainder of the way west through Kansas. At Lawrence, the ADT goes through the campus of the University of Kansas and Clinton Lake State Park. This part of Kansas and the next 200 miles or so are anything but the flat image that most folks may have in their minds. The landscape in physiographic terms is known as Osage Questas, or hill-plains with rather steep slopes, and include the Flint Hills where the bluestem pastureland varies from 100 to 400 feet in elevation. With a lot of ups and downs the ADT heads west on back roads into Council Grove. At one time Council Grove was the last and most important outfitting post on the Santa Fe Trail. There are twelve historic sites here, including the Madonna of the Trail, a 16-foot memorial to the courage of pioneer mothers, and the Old Kaw Mission and Museum. This segment of the ADT is being rerouted to take advantage of recent improvements to the Kansas Trail System. Contact the Kansas State Coordinator for interim routing directions. Herington to McPherson Continuing on back roads, the ADT crosses the Cottonwood River near Durham, and enters McPherson, where the first man-made diamond is on display in the McPherson Museum. McPherson to Great Bend The landscape now begins to gain elevation slowly and the hills lessen as the ADT enters the Great Plains. Kansas usually produces more wheat than any other state and that fact becomes very evident to the ADT traveler. Not so evident are the salt mines that have been in operation since 1890 near Lyons. This land was occupied by the Quivira Indians and artifacts of their sixteenth-century culture are on exhibit in the Coronado-Quivira Museum. At Great Bend the ADT joins the Arkansas River and follows it all the way to Canon City, Colorado, about 500 miles west. The towering concrete grain elevators at Great Bend signal that this is the regional grain center. It was also the area's oil capital, and pumps still extract crude oil from underground reserves beneath the wheat fields. Fort Zarah was located here and guarded the Santa Fe Trail until 1869. South of Great Bend is Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a birder's paradise, where over 250 species of birds have been observed. Great Bend to Kinsley The ADT goes north through Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, a 19,000-acre natural land sink that was once a favorite hunting ground for the Cheyenne Indians. Pawnee Rock State Historic Site was a prominent landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. The 100-foot-high red sandstone outcrop was the site of many Indian ambushes. Larned is the midway point along the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail Center Museum and Cultural Center is located here. Also, Fort Larned National Historic Site is one of the most complete preservations of a western fort. Fort Larned was built in 1859 to protect the mail coaches and commercial wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail. Farther along the Arkansas River is Kinsley, once a railroad boom town, but today a quieter agricultural center. Kinsley is noted for being exactly halfway (by highway, not by trail) between San Francisco and New York City, 1,561 miles from either city. Kinsley to Dodge City Dodge City was fittingly called "Hell on the Plains" and the "Wickedest Little City in America." Its infamous Front Return to Kansas home page.