Alcove Spring

Location:  From Marysville, take Hwy US-77 south just across the bridge on edge of town turn West on East River Road and travel South on this good gravel road for 6 miles.  Alcove Springs is well marked and right off of this road.  You can also get there by taking Hwy US-77 North from Blue Rapids about 2 1/2 miles to the Georgia Pacific plant and turn West at the Alcove Springs sign taking the gravel road for about 5 miles to the spring.

Nearest Towns:  Marysville, Blue Rapids

Contact:  Ph.   785/363-7736

In an age when we speed across the country eating up miles at a rate of more than one a minute, it's hard to comprehend what it must have been like for the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail in the mid 1800's.   Traveling at the pace that a person could walk, it took all summer to make the cross country trek .  Imagine their relief and delight then to be greeted after a few weeks in their journey by the beauty of Alcove Spring.  The spring itself gurgles up from the base of the alcove.  A wet-weather creek flows over the ledge of rocks and into the pool below to form a beautiful ten foot waterfall.

The ill-fated Donner Party camped at Alcove Spring from May 26 to May 31 1846, waiting for the Blue River to go down so that they could safely cross at nearby Independence Crossing.  In fact, it was one of their party, Edwin Bryant, who named the spring Alcove Spring.  The first member of the Donner Party to die was Sarah Keyes, and she did so while they were camped at Alcove Springs.  The 70 year-old Keyes, who was in poor health before she started the journey, was in route to Idaho to see her son there one last time.  Though the exact location of her grave site has been lost to history, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed and dedicated a marker for her at Alcove Spring in 1950.   It is at the edge of the parking lot and about 1/4 mile from the spring.

The inscription on this stone at the spring reads, "JFR 26 May 1846".  It was carved on one of the ledge rocks by J.F. Reed, also a member of the Donner Party, while they were camped at Alcove Spring.  The rock has since broken from the ledge and slid down the slope towards the creek, but the carving is still plainly visible.  There are several other historic inscriptions in the area of the spring.  At the top of the waterfall is an inscription which reads "B. Death" which historians believe was carved as a warning to fellow travelers of cholera in the area.  This dreaded disease killed thousands of Oregon Trail travelers and was spread by drinking contaminated water.

Alcove Spring today is a scenic and peaceful area which is open to the public because of the efforts of the Blue Rapids Chamber of Commerce and a newly formed local trust, the Alcove Spring Historical Trust .  Once this was private land and closed to the public.  This changed when the trust bought the spring and surrounding 223 acres in 1994.

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