Dr. Neil Compton, through the 1960s fought to save the Buffalo River from dam-nation, as planned dams in Searcy County would have turned the river into a lake. Thankfully, his efforts were not in vain. Some of my best memories were created along the river throughout my lifetime. I have certainly received the benefits of Compton's struggle to save the crown jewel river of Arkansas which attracts paddlers from throughout the Midwest and the world. I know for a fact that one Dutch citizen has paddled the river, since I paddled tandem on a church trip with an exchange student (Raymond Frenken) from Central H.S. in W. Helena in the 1980s. Certainly, more folks from around the world have ventured to our state to enjoy nature at its best in that river valley.
When I lived in W. Helena, my family and my church took several trips to the lower section, usually taking out at Rush Landing, a ghost-town from mining days the National River protects. I enjoyed all the trips in those days and I was eager to see more. At this point in my life, the only section of the Buffalo I haven't paddled is the prettiest and most remote below Boxley, the Mt. Hersey to Gilbert section. The most remote section of the Buffalo is actually referred to as Hailstone River, beginning at the confluence of Reeves Fork and Big Buffalo Creek near Fallsville, near the intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 21 in southern Newton County. The beginning of the Buffalo is a beautiful section to experience. It is approximately a 15 to 20 mile stretch in some wild water and some unseen dangers, like a cave that opens on river left at a hairy drop. One of our flotilla corkscrewed his boat at the drop and exited the cockpit, but he and his boat veered away from the hazard. Several fellows were awaiting other paddlers with rescue ropes at the ready, so those folks were certainly thinking of our crew. He didn't need a rescue that time. It was a long section that is difficult to catch at optimal level, so I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to paddle that day. Our trip ended in the willows near Boxley where one of our crew who was in an inflatable kayak popped a hole in it and lost his boat. When I spotted him, he was hanging on to a tree in the rushing water. He climbed out and walked to the road through a pasture. If he'd lost his boat farther up river, he would have needed to climb a rock wall to get out. He was lucky.
Most of my trips have originated at Ponca low-water bridge. It is a pretty section and offers hiking and horseback trails I have hiked in the past. I had to stop for a black bear while driving to the Centerpoint trailhead before my wife and I hiked. We didn't see him on the trail fortunately. I've hiked many of the trails like Cecil Cove Loop, the Buffalo River Trail, Hemmed-In Hollow Trails (including Goat Bluff--a gorgeous trail that challenges those afraid of heights on some bluff-hugging bottlenecks), and Lost Valley (not actually along the river, but near Ponca). My first love is the water, however, so most of my experiences are in the river. I have fished the river from Boxley to Carver and at the confluence of the White River and the Buffalo at Buffalo City.
The most memorable trip I've ever experienced was a three day paddle and camp trip from Ponca to Carver. Our first night along the river was spent at Kyle's Landing right on the river and suffered through rain and lightning through the night. We kept a close eye on the river level, so not a lot of sleep that night. At our campsite, glow-in-the-dark wood chips lit the trail from the river to the main campsite. I was told a fungus rendered the wood chips so easily visible in darkness, but I never checked the fellow's account. At Ozark Landing the next evening, we spent the evening trading stories with some campers employed as state parole officers. The group were unwinding along the river including a native Canadian who loved the scenery of northern Arkansas and relocated to Ft. Smith. Luckily, we were out early enough each morning and avoided most of the novice paddlers who pack the river and clog the rapids with overturned canoes.
Buffalo River was a good fishing site years ago. The last time I fished there, runoff from logging operations muddied the waters and I haven't been back to fish. I camped with an acquaintance on a sandy shoal on the Ponca to Kyle's stretch and found a hole that hid me with a giant boulder stuck in the river from a flood and I was up to my chest in water and caught one smallmouth bass after another. The next time I fished that spot, the boulder had been pushed down river or to the bottom of the pool. I love to catch smallmouth and have caught my share in the the Buffalo and in the East and Middle Forks of the upper White River over the years and the next catch is always a thrill. Near Buffalo City, trout can be caught, where the Buffalo meets the cold waters of the White River.
My favorite time of year on the Buffalo is winter. The leaves are off and the scenery of the mountains is uncovered. Hiking in winter is always fun. Most of my paddle trips over the years are in winter, because that's when the water levels are optimal. The only bummer to me is the Buffalo can be closed from Ponca down river by the rangers. The day I paddled the Hailstone section, the water level was just flowing over the bridge at Ponca. They don't close the Hailstone section in high water fortunately. Through the years, my favorite whitewater river has been the Mulberry River in Johnson and Franklin Counties, but for the scenery and the access to trails and the river, the Buffalo is a true gem. It isn't the most challenging river in the Ozarks, so I recommend the river for practically any skill level. Ponca is a bit much for most casual paddlers and they should expect to flip at places like Gray Rock (where "traffic" jams of overturned boats is the biggest hazard for are casual paddlers there in droves. People were upsetting on riffles where no one expects overturned boats. A boy in an OU cap flipped just in front as I was trying to pass him before the next rapid, which required some staging, but he didn't make it through the "kiddie riffle" unscathed. Too much fun at his expense. I retrieved one of his lost possessions and handed it back to him. Another fellow flipped farther down river and an acquaintance retrieved and returned his cooler and floppy hat, but not the contents which fell out of the cooler. We had replenished our cooler stockpile, which was getting dangerously low. My wife and I camped at Buffalo Point shortly before I began dating her and we spent our honeymoon at a resort at Ponca and hiked to the Hemmed-In Hollow waterfall, so the Buffalo valley is special to us. It was nice and chilly that day for the 5+ mile round trip. My first hike to the waterfall was in the dog days of August and the uphill climb out was sweltering, but water was flowing despite the drought.
Kayaking has afforded opportunities to see some of the most beautiful sites of the Ozarks. I've paddled Frog Bayou, Lee Creek, Mulberry, Little Mulberry, Big Piney, forks of the upper White, Illinois, King's, War Eagle Creek, and several little creeks that flow into those rivers. The Buffalo is the one EVERYONE should experience from Ponca to Buffalo City. If your skill level is adequate, definitely find an experienced crew and paddle from Fallsville to Boxley or Ponca (6 miles below Boxley Bridge). The Buffalo River Handbook, by Kenneth L. Smith, and the hiking guides of Tim Ernst are must reads. The handbook provides historical content as well as geographic and tourist information. The civil war was a desperate time for Buffalo River valley inhabitants and families were divided. For instance, the Villines clan of Boxley Valley, which boasts future country music star Merle Haggard among its members, was on one end pro-Union and on the other end pro-Confederacy. The bushwhackers made life nearly unbearable in northern Arkansas and life was cheap. Peace groups sprang up throughout Arkansas and many of those men fled to the backwoods of the Ozarks to avoid conscription in Confederate or Union armies and some likely became bushwhackers themselves. Lawlessness was rife and sustenance was scarce, sending most folks to flight. The civil war activity of either army in this region was a logistical nightmare lacking rails or good roads. Many a marching soldier was shoeless or became so after not a whole lot of marching in the Ozarks. Bare-footed troops with the lower pants legs shredded by vegetation on the roads and trails they marched were common sights.
Whitewater paddling has been mostly replaced by lakes and big rivers (Beaver Lake and Table Rock Lake are fun to paddle and offers plenty of mileage and waves). Mad River Synergy 12 footer has seen as many miles and pleasurable experiences as my whitewater Prijon Tornado by now. The Prijon has seen thousands of miles between my ownership and one of the great paddlers of the Ozarks who paddled in the boat before I purchased it. What a great boat. The only time it failed me was because of its length. My wife dropped me off at Boxley, one day, and I was going to paddle a quick trip to Ponca. I was scouting a rapid that had a tree down, so I grabbed the eddy and scouted. The water was rather high, so the eddy was flowing upriver rather quickly and I broke out of the eddy at a bottleneck and the bow of my boat hit a tree on the opposite shore and I rolled it. I swam furiously through several swift pools hanging onto my paddle and tethered to a spraydeck and never caught it until I reached the big pool right below Ponca. My wife saw my boat floating upside down while waiting for me at the low water bridge at Ponca and didn't know what to think. As she saw it, I had climbed out of the river and run along the fields where the elk hang out through the briars and cane stands along the riverbank and yelled out to her, so she wouldn't think I drowned. I ran to the bridge, ditched my spraydeck, life-jacket, and paddle and swam as fast as I could to catch the boat before it went through another rapid which would have made it impossible for me to catch through that section. I caught the boat at the tail end of the pool. Short lesson in that incident: Never paddle a river alone. You never know what might happen.
I have enjoyed the Ozarks and the Buffalo River the past couple of decades and I feel fortunate that Dr. Neil Compton fought to save this river from the dam project. Many natives of the river valley weren't so happy about the result at the time. They wanted the dams and they wanted a lake. The gorgeous ancient scenery is too rich to be flooded in my opinion. Thanks again, Dr. Compton for your service to Arkansas and the world.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Labor Day thoughts
Lately, my historical studies have focused on Civil War-era Helena with the Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Helena July 4, 2013 approaching. I was fortunate to have received a copy of the Book of Common Prayer from the pastor at St. John's in Helena (Father Travis Frank). I'm trying to understand the mindset of the Bishop who presided over the Southwest prior to the Civil War, so I have been studying the Episcopal faith. Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk was brought to the faith in the "Burned Over" region of upper NY state during the 2nd Great Awakening while a cadet at West Point. Polk, upon graduation from the Academy, opted for the priesthood instead of military service, so he was not part of the war effort in Mexico. I'm trying to finish the BCP before my Plains vacation so I can begin study of the Baptists and Methodists of Helena in that period. My grandmother attended the Episcopal mission on Cherry St. shortly after her family migrated to Helena from Cotton Plant and it was a thrill to see her siblings and she on the baptismal record there. My grandmother was also a member of the historic First Baptist Church in Helena where the old Ft. Curtis set during the war. The church was extant during the war along Perry St. (I'm operating strictly from memory, so be kind if I'm mistaken on that one) closer to the center of town. Ft. Curtis was actually the fringe of town in those days.
Reading through the BCP on Labor Day evening before I turned in, I read a collect For Labor Day (#25):
Almighty God, who hast so linked our lives one with another that we all do affecteth, for good or ill, all our lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those whom are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (BCP, page 210)
No wonder William Faulkner loved the BCP. We tend to forget that mundane things like our labors are actually in service to the common good as much as for our own financial well-being. It's nice to believe that rolling the rock up the hill only to have it roll all the way down the hill to start the whole process over again can have more of an impact than on our own affairs and families. Folks who work as police, soldiers, firefighters, and social workers aren't the only ones serving their fellow human beings. We should all labor with the knowledge that no matter the task, we should all consider our labors as edification for others and that we all serve God. In my job, I need that kind of encouragement.
On Facebook, I see children of firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, state and Federal employees, and the military who followed the calling of their parents to serve America, humankind, and God and I want to personally thank all these folks in honor of Labor Day and to urge you all in the faith (stealing from the Pauline epistles). And thanks for all of you who labor for the common good outside the service sector. Hopefully, all Americans who wish to labor for the common good will find a job worthy of their efforts. I'm happy to be able to pay my bills and collect enough money for music, books, and travels, so I'm truly grateful to God for His mercy. I could be one of the unlucky who have been booted from their jobs, their homes, and their good dispositions. Everyone deserves to feel needed and have a job to occupy their time and fill their wallets for their personal pursuits. Economic times like these have a tendency to divide Americans cumulatively and their individual families, so let's all pray that better economic times are ahead for the sake of us all.
Reading through the BCP on Labor Day evening before I turned in, I read a collect For Labor Day (#25):
Almighty God, who hast so linked our lives one with another that we all do affecteth, for good or ill, all our lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those whom are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (BCP, page 210)
No wonder William Faulkner loved the BCP. We tend to forget that mundane things like our labors are actually in service to the common good as much as for our own financial well-being. It's nice to believe that rolling the rock up the hill only to have it roll all the way down the hill to start the whole process over again can have more of an impact than on our own affairs and families. Folks who work as police, soldiers, firefighters, and social workers aren't the only ones serving their fellow human beings. We should all labor with the knowledge that no matter the task, we should all consider our labors as edification for others and that we all serve God. In my job, I need that kind of encouragement.
On Facebook, I see children of firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, state and Federal employees, and the military who followed the calling of their parents to serve America, humankind, and God and I want to personally thank all these folks in honor of Labor Day and to urge you all in the faith (stealing from the Pauline epistles). And thanks for all of you who labor for the common good outside the service sector. Hopefully, all Americans who wish to labor for the common good will find a job worthy of their efforts. I'm happy to be able to pay my bills and collect enough money for music, books, and travels, so I'm truly grateful to God for His mercy. I could be one of the unlucky who have been booted from their jobs, their homes, and their good dispositions. Everyone deserves to feel needed and have a job to occupy their time and fill their wallets for their personal pursuits. Economic times like these have a tendency to divide Americans cumulatively and their individual families, so let's all pray that better economic times are ahead for the sake of us all.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
State parks are for Arkansans too
Over the years, I have visited state parks in my immediate vicinity including AR, MS, MO, KS, and OK. Mainly, I have visited scenic rivers Mulberry and Buffalo and many other unprotected rivers and streams. For my investment of time, AR state parks seem to offer the best options. In AR, I have visited Lake Chicot (Lake Village), Cane Creek (Star City), Devil's Den (Winslow), Lake Ft. Smith (Mountainburg), Hobbs (Rogers), Prairie Grove Battlefield (PG), Delta Heritage (Barton), Village Creek (Wynne) and Mt. Magazine(Paris). Compared to MO, OK, and KS, AR is by far the best manager of state parks. OK just doesn't care about how crummy some of their sites are. Same with the parks I've visited in MO and KS. It brings me to the point of this blog. A report this week in the ADG, stated that AR citizens are among the laziest in America. AR has some of the finest state parks and outdoor opportunities in America and AR citizens don't seem to utilize the resources we have. Mulberry River and Buffalo River are federally protected rivers. Buffalo is a national river and Mulberry is a designated scenic river. Hikes and horseback riding are activities besides paddling that are offered that are excellent cardio-vascular activities for folks who don't backpack, rock-climb or participate in less accessible somewhat dangerous activities. AR citizens are lazy and fat according to the report and there are resources available to citizens that are usually very low in cost to combat the piling on of adipose tissue.
My home region, eastern AR, has lagged behind, particularly near Helena, in state park and national forest access. The MS River State Park has begun work on St Francis National Forest, where I spent many hours of my youth, to remedy the access gap by building a hiking trail and improving campsites at Bear Creek and Storm Creek Lakes and are planning to open access points on the MS River for paddlers. Cane Creek S.P. has a 15 mile hike/bike trail for use in SE AR and Lake Chicot S.P.has a nice big piece of lake to paddle to one's limit, but lacks a hiking trail. I rode my bike along the highway leading to the park to the levee and accumulated a few miles of excellent pedaling and the local traffic were very courteous and gave plenty of room, though the farm trucks continued to drive from 70mph to 90 near Lake Village. Biking could be an excellent activity if the road around the park and the two sections of lake were fully paved. I rode a mountain bike, so I didn't mind the gravel. I didn't ride all the way round the lake, so maybe it's much better ahead. Lake Chicot SP doesn't have a lot of room for trails, though they do have a short hike where mosquitoes awaited us. Wah!
AR citizens should take a change of lifestyle seriously to avoid horrible slow-decay deaths that seem to await many of us if we don't get smart about fitness. The national forests and refuges are beginning to take the access issue seriously and I have become a big fan of their offerings. White River National Refuge is not just for hunting these days. I've enjoyed paddling some of the wetlands of SE AR despite guns ablazing all around. Haven't been shot yet. Besides, most of the hunters and motor-boaters are beyond courteous and friendly. We have many good people who live and let live, so don't be afraid to encounter other folks deep in the forest or refuge. I've hiked the Ozark Highlands Trail during the height of deer season and turkey season. Most state parks ban hunting in NW AR, except Hobbs, for example, where hunting is allowed at certain times. Devil's Den bans hunting all the time, but hunting is allowed in the adjoining Ozark National Forest ( not forgetting that some hunters actually walk for their prey and can get some c-v benefit). NW AR's Pea Ridge National Military park offers road riding on their paved tour loop and within the 4,300 acres are numerous short hikes useful for exploring troop movements and the battle and a 10 mile trail that utilizes the entire park.
Get out and enjoy the beautiful natural setting AR offers its citizens. There are no excuses for being a couch potato in this great state.
My home region, eastern AR, has lagged behind, particularly near Helena, in state park and national forest access. The MS River State Park has begun work on St Francis National Forest, where I spent many hours of my youth, to remedy the access gap by building a hiking trail and improving campsites at Bear Creek and Storm Creek Lakes and are planning to open access points on the MS River for paddlers. Cane Creek S.P. has a 15 mile hike/bike trail for use in SE AR and Lake Chicot S.P.has a nice big piece of lake to paddle to one's limit, but lacks a hiking trail. I rode my bike along the highway leading to the park to the levee and accumulated a few miles of excellent pedaling and the local traffic were very courteous and gave plenty of room, though the farm trucks continued to drive from 70mph to 90 near Lake Village. Biking could be an excellent activity if the road around the park and the two sections of lake were fully paved. I rode a mountain bike, so I didn't mind the gravel. I didn't ride all the way round the lake, so maybe it's much better ahead. Lake Chicot SP doesn't have a lot of room for trails, though they do have a short hike where mosquitoes awaited us. Wah!
AR citizens should take a change of lifestyle seriously to avoid horrible slow-decay deaths that seem to await many of us if we don't get smart about fitness. The national forests and refuges are beginning to take the access issue seriously and I have become a big fan of their offerings. White River National Refuge is not just for hunting these days. I've enjoyed paddling some of the wetlands of SE AR despite guns ablazing all around. Haven't been shot yet. Besides, most of the hunters and motor-boaters are beyond courteous and friendly. We have many good people who live and let live, so don't be afraid to encounter other folks deep in the forest or refuge. I've hiked the Ozark Highlands Trail during the height of deer season and turkey season. Most state parks ban hunting in NW AR, except Hobbs, for example, where hunting is allowed at certain times. Devil's Den bans hunting all the time, but hunting is allowed in the adjoining Ozark National Forest ( not forgetting that some hunters actually walk for their prey and can get some c-v benefit). NW AR's Pea Ridge National Military park offers road riding on their paved tour loop and within the 4,300 acres are numerous short hikes useful for exploring troop movements and the battle and a 10 mile trail that utilizes the entire park.
Get out and enjoy the beautiful natural setting AR offers its citizens. There are no excuses for being a couch potato in this great state.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Vacation around the corner: A ramble
Vacation time is approaching SLOWLY ! Planning my next vacation has jarred loose the memories of my last Plains vacation through the state of Kansas. Following the Santa Fe Trail and visiting the Oregon-California and Pony Express trail at Marysville and Hollenberg, Kansas, I spent a week last Autumn traveling the relatively large state. I visited the cities Emporia, Council Grove, Cottonwood Falls, Marysville, Manhattan, Wamego, Larned, Dodge City, Strong City, Hollenberg, Jetmore, Home, Greensburg, Arkansas City, Coffeyville, and Baxter Springs. My wife and I drove home to NW AR through a flood along the old Route 66, a road the state of Kansas would prefer not to maintain. Route 66 in a Ford Focus through the "wagon ruts" with the threat of hydroplaning for 8 hours of nearly non-stop driving nearly dampened our day. We managed to beat the road closure in Missouri because of flash flooding by an hour or so. I loved the trip, but hated the ending in treacherous conditions.
This year, I don't care if flooding is a concern again, I will make it to the Plains to study the Santa Fe Trail again, returning to the Pony Express/Oregon-California Trail into Nebraska, hopefully as far west as Gothenberg Pony Express station to end the visit to the Plains. I'm also hoping to spend some time on the Smoky Hill Trail from Manhattan/Ft. Riley/Junction City perhaps to Ft. Hays/Hays. I am certainly planning to travel through Lyons to Great Bend along the Santa Fe trail I had to skip last year to see the Ft. Zarah site and the birding sites Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Lyons is a place I want to visit along the way to Great Bend to check out the Coronado-Quivira Musueum at a Carnegie Library building (one of many Carnegie grant libraries throughout Kansas and America, including Eureka Springs in NW AR). Coronado followed the approximate Santa Fe Trail up to the Smoky Hill River valley to the area near Ft. Riley and Junction City where the Smoky Hill Trail began in the 16th century.
I considered an exclusive visit to the Santa Fe Trail vicinity along the Mountain Route, through Colorado and the Raton Pass into New Mexico, but I may plan a two-week trip to follow the Santa Fe Trail all the way to the city later. I want to visit one of the places in my favorite Townes Van Zandt song White Freightliner Blues where folks will treat you kind. I know the Kansas folks treated me kind there during my stay. I enjoyed the small cafe in Jetmore, between Larned and Dodge City where we seemed to provoke many whispers and stares at our AR license plate. The cheeseburger was superb and the mother-daughter business on the windy Kansas Plains is worth a second visit if I ever reach Jetmore again. I was sorely disappointed with Dodge City, where their history seems to mean nothing to them. I wasted time there though I did see some wagon ruts on the SFT, and saw Ft. Dodge and to the northeast, 64 giant windmills, each setting on a one acre plot. Bent's Fort National Historic site in Colorado is definitely a place I want to visit on a Mountain Route vacation. Nebraska is in the plans for the next trip. I may venture to Atchison, KS on the Missouri border, but have not yet decided because if I go there, I'll have to slip across the border to study St. Joseph along the Pony Express trail.
Last year I spent three days in Emporia, conveniently staying in a hotel next door to the local Starbucks, whom we kept in business for the week and probably allowed them to hire one new barrista. From Emporia(where my wife graduated high school) we traveled to Cottonwood Falls, Council Grove, Manhattan, and Marysville (my wife's hometown) near the Nebraska border and at the site of Marshall's Ferry and the Pony Express barn, which now houses the town museum. We visited Joe's Bar on the main drag visiting a friend of a friend in the quaint little town. The Oregon-California trail is commemorated at Alcove Spring. We passed through Wamego as the original Oz Fest was winding down, celebrating the Wizard of Oz along north-south historic Highway 99. My wife, her sister, and I posed for the touristy picture in front of a state boundary sign beside a cornfield. Nebraska was reached that day, whetting my curiosity for what was beyond the imaginary line.
Cottonwood Falls was the terminus of the Texas Cattle Trail. The Chase County courthouse was a remarkable structure in the little town. Strong City sets near the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and the remaining 1881 Jones limestone house and Spring Hill farm and Stock ranch are administered by National Park service. The park rangers are at the barn and the house is a bookstore with many fine selections on Kansas and Plains history to choose from. The Preserve offers front country and backcountry trail options, one trail leading to the Lower Fox Creek School. Bus tours are also offered. The blue-stem grasses of the Flint Hills were also an important historic site of the fattening of the driven cattle before slaughter and processing.
Today, the blue-stem prairie in the Flint Hills region is a source of nutrition for cattle shipped in front other parts of the country. In Dodge City and Emporia, large meatpacking companies perform the deed of making beef look more appealing than the freshly killed carcass of a dead animal can offer. Most folks love meat, but few are willing to perform the slaughter and butcher duties. Excel is a large meat packer in DC and a scenic overlook above the Excel feedlot and processing facilities gives you a good look at the proceedings outdoors, while the Iowa Beef (Tyson-owned) dominates Emporia. My wife's father was a Federal veterinarian at the "Beef", as he called it, for many years. He believed everyone should eat beef. Kansas' economy then as now depends on the industry. The Chisholm Trail Center at Wellington was on my wish-list the day of the flood and my rush back home with flooding reaching the region. The beef industry is a worthy topic of discovery on its own merits. I like to investigate the migration trails, old roadbeds, and cattle trails.
Council Grove was an important rendezvous for travelers seeking company to traverse the hazardous Plains along the Santa Fe Trail reaching either the longer Mountain Route or opting for the shorter desert trail along the Cimarron Route. We visited and had lunch at the Terwilliger House, owned and operated by a descendant of Welsh immigrants who largely moved in as Beecher Bible and Gun abolitionists who would fight for their views if necessary. Dunno if his folks moved in with that group. The Kaw Mission and several other old structures remain dating back to the "Bleeding Kansas" period and before (dating from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854 to the opening of hostilities of the Civil War in 1861). The area was a dangerous place because of Indians and Confederates, who easily entered the Kansas Plains from their bases in Texas and Missouri. The war along the SFT extended to New Mexico where battles and skirmishes occurred between Union and Confederate forces.
I have spent my time in NW AR seeking out and traveling the old roads, particularly the Butterfield Trail/Telegraph Road and other civil war pathways, including the Cove Creek and Mountain roads. Naturally I've followed the old Military Road and the Line Road from Kansas to NW AR and Ft. Smith in the AR River valley. I've visited the Military Road at the site of the Baxter Springs Massacre near Ft. Blair, where Quantrill's band essentially murdered Blunt's command, though lightly armed and carrying a regimetal band, that was wiped out by the raiders. A haunting photo of bandmembers shortly before departure from Ft. Scott, KS to Ft. Smith, AR exists. Sad to see all those faces soon to meet their mortal end. Also killed in the attack was Maj. H. Zarah Curtis, Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis' son (Gen. Curtis was the commander of the 1862 Winter Campaign through Arkansas that included the Battle of Pea Ridge, ending in the capture of the Mississippi River port, Helena, my hometown). Ft. Zarah was founded on the AR River after Indian troubles in 1864 attracted an army led my Maj. Gen. Curtis to Council Groveand named in honor of the general's late son.
My 2009 trip, the fun part, essentially ended at Larned, where the Santa Fe Trail center and the old Ft. Larned are located. I bought several interesting books at the center and enjoyed the long windy walk around the grounds of Ft. Larned. The stone facade of the fort was defaced through the years of private ownership prior to the Federal government stewardship and was a real bummer. It was interesting to see the graffiti because Roman graffiti is quite important for its study, but I wish I could have seen the gorgeous facades of the rocked buildings as they were after the masons were done. Oh well. I still enjoyed the blasting winds. Along the way to Larned, I saw bicyclists chugging through the blowing tumbleweeds, dust, and trash. Craig Miner, noted Wichita St. Univ. historian studies the Kansas Plains in the saddle. I wonder if I passed him. His book West of Wichita is a must read for the Kansas history enthusiast.
I enjoyed the drive through the Gyp Hills around Medicine Lodge, site of the Carry Nation house and the stockade built there to defend against Indian attacks and the site of a meeting of Indian leaders and Federal troops. The Gyp Hills were laden with great ambush sites in those days. I would love to spend a couple of days at that town. Greensburg, ML, Wellington, Arkansas City, Winfield, and Coffeyville will have to wait for more lengthy visits in the future. Greensburg has been rebuilt after the horrible tornado that wiped out the town. The other towns are rich with history in the picturesque region. Not much about Kansas is flat from my perspective. I've ridden my share of miles in the saddle of a bike and I can vouch for the fact that pedaling the parts of the state I've encountered will improve one's cardio-vascular health immensely, if a heart attack is not suffered in the process.
I can't wait to start the trip to Great Plains this Autumn. I've exhausted most of my reading, so it's time to pick up more books about the history of the region. I have hundreds of miles of migration trails on my map of all the trails of the west. SFT leads either south to Chihuahua or west to Sacramento. My reading of Sherman's memoirs and his California years has picqued my interest. I want to reach the ocean someday and visit the approximate areas he frequented. Fremont's Brigade passed through Council Grove on their way to California when the war with Mexico was unfolding under Pres. Polk (who was a close confidante of Maj. Gen. Pillow, who owned two plantations in present-day Phillips and Lee counties and was responsible for the near disaster at Belmont on the Mississippi River and the disasters at Ft. Donelson and Ft. Henry on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers).
Enough rambling about the past today. The Plains await. Next topics, maybe: Shiloh, Oxford, MS, the Delta Heritage Trail, and Ft. Scott, KS, more Arkansas state parks, and the wild raging rivers and creeks of NW AR I've frequented in years past. Enjoy some time outdoors.
This year, I don't care if flooding is a concern again, I will make it to the Plains to study the Santa Fe Trail again, returning to the Pony Express/Oregon-California Trail into Nebraska, hopefully as far west as Gothenberg Pony Express station to end the visit to the Plains. I'm also hoping to spend some time on the Smoky Hill Trail from Manhattan/Ft. Riley/Junction City perhaps to Ft. Hays/Hays. I am certainly planning to travel through Lyons to Great Bend along the Santa Fe trail I had to skip last year to see the Ft. Zarah site and the birding sites Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Lyons is a place I want to visit along the way to Great Bend to check out the Coronado-Quivira Musueum at a Carnegie Library building (one of many Carnegie grant libraries throughout Kansas and America, including Eureka Springs in NW AR). Coronado followed the approximate Santa Fe Trail up to the Smoky Hill River valley to the area near Ft. Riley and Junction City where the Smoky Hill Trail began in the 16th century.
I considered an exclusive visit to the Santa Fe Trail vicinity along the Mountain Route, through Colorado and the Raton Pass into New Mexico, but I may plan a two-week trip to follow the Santa Fe Trail all the way to the city later. I want to visit one of the places in my favorite Townes Van Zandt song White Freightliner Blues where folks will treat you kind. I know the Kansas folks treated me kind there during my stay. I enjoyed the small cafe in Jetmore, between Larned and Dodge City where we seemed to provoke many whispers and stares at our AR license plate. The cheeseburger was superb and the mother-daughter business on the windy Kansas Plains is worth a second visit if I ever reach Jetmore again. I was sorely disappointed with Dodge City, where their history seems to mean nothing to them. I wasted time there though I did see some wagon ruts on the SFT, and saw Ft. Dodge and to the northeast, 64 giant windmills, each setting on a one acre plot. Bent's Fort National Historic site in Colorado is definitely a place I want to visit on a Mountain Route vacation. Nebraska is in the plans for the next trip. I may venture to Atchison, KS on the Missouri border, but have not yet decided because if I go there, I'll have to slip across the border to study St. Joseph along the Pony Express trail.
Last year I spent three days in Emporia, conveniently staying in a hotel next door to the local Starbucks, whom we kept in business for the week and probably allowed them to hire one new barrista. From Emporia(where my wife graduated high school) we traveled to Cottonwood Falls, Council Grove, Manhattan, and Marysville (my wife's hometown) near the Nebraska border and at the site of Marshall's Ferry and the Pony Express barn, which now houses the town museum. We visited Joe's Bar on the main drag visiting a friend of a friend in the quaint little town. The Oregon-California trail is commemorated at Alcove Spring. We passed through Wamego as the original Oz Fest was winding down, celebrating the Wizard of Oz along north-south historic Highway 99. My wife, her sister, and I posed for the touristy picture in front of a state boundary sign beside a cornfield. Nebraska was reached that day, whetting my curiosity for what was beyond the imaginary line.
Cottonwood Falls was the terminus of the Texas Cattle Trail. The Chase County courthouse was a remarkable structure in the little town. Strong City sets near the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and the remaining 1881 Jones limestone house and Spring Hill farm and Stock ranch are administered by National Park service. The park rangers are at the barn and the house is a bookstore with many fine selections on Kansas and Plains history to choose from. The Preserve offers front country and backcountry trail options, one trail leading to the Lower Fox Creek School. Bus tours are also offered. The blue-stem grasses of the Flint Hills were also an important historic site of the fattening of the driven cattle before slaughter and processing.
Today, the blue-stem prairie in the Flint Hills region is a source of nutrition for cattle shipped in front other parts of the country. In Dodge City and Emporia, large meatpacking companies perform the deed of making beef look more appealing than the freshly killed carcass of a dead animal can offer. Most folks love meat, but few are willing to perform the slaughter and butcher duties. Excel is a large meat packer in DC and a scenic overlook above the Excel feedlot and processing facilities gives you a good look at the proceedings outdoors, while the Iowa Beef (Tyson-owned) dominates Emporia. My wife's father was a Federal veterinarian at the "Beef", as he called it, for many years. He believed everyone should eat beef. Kansas' economy then as now depends on the industry. The Chisholm Trail Center at Wellington was on my wish-list the day of the flood and my rush back home with flooding reaching the region. The beef industry is a worthy topic of discovery on its own merits. I like to investigate the migration trails, old roadbeds, and cattle trails.
Council Grove was an important rendezvous for travelers seeking company to traverse the hazardous Plains along the Santa Fe Trail reaching either the longer Mountain Route or opting for the shorter desert trail along the Cimarron Route. We visited and had lunch at the Terwilliger House, owned and operated by a descendant of Welsh immigrants who largely moved in as Beecher Bible and Gun abolitionists who would fight for their views if necessary. Dunno if his folks moved in with that group. The Kaw Mission and several other old structures remain dating back to the "Bleeding Kansas" period and before (dating from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854 to the opening of hostilities of the Civil War in 1861). The area was a dangerous place because of Indians and Confederates, who easily entered the Kansas Plains from their bases in Texas and Missouri. The war along the SFT extended to New Mexico where battles and skirmishes occurred between Union and Confederate forces.
I have spent my time in NW AR seeking out and traveling the old roads, particularly the Butterfield Trail/Telegraph Road and other civil war pathways, including the Cove Creek and Mountain roads. Naturally I've followed the old Military Road and the Line Road from Kansas to NW AR and Ft. Smith in the AR River valley. I've visited the Military Road at the site of the Baxter Springs Massacre near Ft. Blair, where Quantrill's band essentially murdered Blunt's command, though lightly armed and carrying a regimetal band, that was wiped out by the raiders. A haunting photo of bandmembers shortly before departure from Ft. Scott, KS to Ft. Smith, AR exists. Sad to see all those faces soon to meet their mortal end. Also killed in the attack was Maj. H. Zarah Curtis, Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis' son (Gen. Curtis was the commander of the 1862 Winter Campaign through Arkansas that included the Battle of Pea Ridge, ending in the capture of the Mississippi River port, Helena, my hometown). Ft. Zarah was founded on the AR River after Indian troubles in 1864 attracted an army led my Maj. Gen. Curtis to Council Groveand named in honor of the general's late son.
My 2009 trip, the fun part, essentially ended at Larned, where the Santa Fe Trail center and the old Ft. Larned are located. I bought several interesting books at the center and enjoyed the long windy walk around the grounds of Ft. Larned. The stone facade of the fort was defaced through the years of private ownership prior to the Federal government stewardship and was a real bummer. It was interesting to see the graffiti because Roman graffiti is quite important for its study, but I wish I could have seen the gorgeous facades of the rocked buildings as they were after the masons were done. Oh well. I still enjoyed the blasting winds. Along the way to Larned, I saw bicyclists chugging through the blowing tumbleweeds, dust, and trash. Craig Miner, noted Wichita St. Univ. historian studies the Kansas Plains in the saddle. I wonder if I passed him. His book West of Wichita is a must read for the Kansas history enthusiast.
I enjoyed the drive through the Gyp Hills around Medicine Lodge, site of the Carry Nation house and the stockade built there to defend against Indian attacks and the site of a meeting of Indian leaders and Federal troops. The Gyp Hills were laden with great ambush sites in those days. I would love to spend a couple of days at that town. Greensburg, ML, Wellington, Arkansas City, Winfield, and Coffeyville will have to wait for more lengthy visits in the future. Greensburg has been rebuilt after the horrible tornado that wiped out the town. The other towns are rich with history in the picturesque region. Not much about Kansas is flat from my perspective. I've ridden my share of miles in the saddle of a bike and I can vouch for the fact that pedaling the parts of the state I've encountered will improve one's cardio-vascular health immensely, if a heart attack is not suffered in the process.
I can't wait to start the trip to Great Plains this Autumn. I've exhausted most of my reading, so it's time to pick up more books about the history of the region. I have hundreds of miles of migration trails on my map of all the trails of the west. SFT leads either south to Chihuahua or west to Sacramento. My reading of Sherman's memoirs and his California years has picqued my interest. I want to reach the ocean someday and visit the approximate areas he frequented. Fremont's Brigade passed through Council Grove on their way to California when the war with Mexico was unfolding under Pres. Polk (who was a close confidante of Maj. Gen. Pillow, who owned two plantations in present-day Phillips and Lee counties and was responsible for the near disaster at Belmont on the Mississippi River and the disasters at Ft. Donelson and Ft. Henry on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers).
Enough rambling about the past today. The Plains await. Next topics, maybe: Shiloh, Oxford, MS, the Delta Heritage Trail, and Ft. Scott, KS, more Arkansas state parks, and the wild raging rivers and creeks of NW AR I've frequented in years past. Enjoy some time outdoors.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)