By 1900, the Santa Fe Trail was already history. If asked to locate the Trail, very few people could do so. The Kansas Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization which honors our American heritage, set a plan in motion in 1902 to mark the old commerce route as a tribute to the brave pioneers who traversed it. “Those early travelers prized the old Trail as a road to the future, and we hope the people of years to come will use it and keep its early history in remembrance.”
The DAR enlisted the aid of maps, the knowledge of early settlers, the Kansas State Historical Society and some previously erected markers to trace the route of the SFT. At a Trail Committee meeting in 1905, the Daughters decided to ask the school children of Kansas to contribute a penny each toward the marking of the Trail since the funds appropriated by the State were not enough to pay for all the markers. On Kansas Day 1906, which was also designated as Trail Day, approximately 200 pennies were collected from Lakin students to help in the endeavor.
In 1907, the DAR announced that 96 markers had been placed throughout Kansas. Kearny County’s markers arrived by rail in July of that year, and commissioners paid the expense of setting the five stones. Since Kearny County did not have a DAR chapter, County Clerk and Lakin pioneer F.L. Pierce gave prompt and efficient attention to the task of having the markers placed. The marker placed in Deerfield stands in the southeast corner of the city park. In Lakin, one monument was set at the old courthouse at the corner of Main and Waterman. This marker was moved to the current courthouse in 1939. The third marker in Lakin sits in front of the high school. It was moved to this location in 1961 but had originally been placed at the site of the school building which sat on the west end of the Lakin Grade School block.
Hartland’s Main Street was the location of the fourth marker. As Hartland gradually disappeared, the marker was engulfed in weeds. Billy Carter was cultivating the ground and put a long chain around the marker and pulled it over to his house. Later the DAR Chapter of Garden City secured the assistance of the highway commission and had the marker moved to the River Road where it intersects the once Main Street of Hartland.
The final marker was placed between Lakin and Deerfield at Long Schoolhouse. For several years after the school closed, the marker remained where it was placed by the side of the highway. As the story goes, a young man who was opening a filling station in Lakin thought the marker would look good on the station grounds and brought it to Lakin. Kearny County commissioners later instructed Paul McVey, county engineer, to move this marker to Indian Mound. Mr. McVey and Bill Fross accomplished this difficult task using a winch truck.
The dates engraved on the markers (1822-1872) are a somewhat controversial topic among trail enthusiasts as the Santa Fe Trail Association recognizes the start of the trail as 1821 when William Becknell first ventured to Santa Fe and the end of the trail as 1880 when the railroad reached Santa Fe. The Story of the Marking of the Santa Fe Trail by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kansas and the State of Kansas claims, “The earliest use of the Trail was in 1822, when a caravan left Boonville, Mo., by way of Lexington, Independence, Westport (now Kansas City, Mo.), thence in a southwesterly direction across the great State of Kansas, then only a desert and wilderness, and on to Santa Fe, New Mexico.” The DAR correlated the end of the trail with the completion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad through Kansas in 1872. In 1996, a plea was made in the quarterly newsletter of the Santa Fe Trail Association to press for historical accuracy, but the original engraved dates remain. Nonetheless, more important than the dates on the granite markers is the fact that had the Daughters not marked the historic route when they did, the location of the Santa Fe Trail could have been lost forever.
SOURCES: “The Story of the Marking of the Santa Fe Trail by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kansas and the State of Kansas” by DAR Historian Mrs. T.A. Cordry; “History of Kearny County” Vol. I; Kansapedia, Kansas State Historical Society, www.dar.com; www.santafetrailresearch.com; archives of the Advocate; Museum archives, and information provided by the late Marcella McVey.