Pawnee Rock State Historical Site

Location:  From Great Bend, take Hwy US 56 South 12 miles to the town of Pawnee Rock.  Go north 1 mile to the entrance of the park.

Nearest Towns:  Pawnee Rock, Great Bend

Hours:  Open daylight hours.

Rising from the treeless plains, Pawnee Rock was an important landmark along the Santa Fe Trail, and was often used as a camping ground.  Native Americans used it, too.  In the summer, the Pawnee would come from their villages to the north to hunt the buffalo in this area.  They would use the rocky prominence to spot the herds, keep look out for other tribes who where also in the area, and like us today, probably just to have a look around and enjoy the view.  Beginning in 1822, the White man would also come this way on the Santa Fe Trail.  The convergence of these two cultures sometimes brought trouble, but most often contact was avoided by both peoples.

By the late 1800's, the dust of the Santa Fe trail caravans were just a memory, replaced by the whistle of the steam engine.   People had settled in the area of Pawnee Rock and were in need of building materials.  Trees were scarce and not of the type that would produce good lumber.   Lumber used for construction would have to be hauled in from further east making it fairly expensive.  The other option would be to quarry native stone and use it.   The easiest and most abundant source in this area was the outcropping known as Pawnee Rock .  The original height of the landmark was to the top of the native stone shelter you see in the photo at right .  Fifty or so feet of rock were quarried off the top of the outcropping.  It seems to us today a shame that this was done, but it was just a case of people doing what they had to do at the time.

You may climb to the top of the shelter via a spiral staircase at one corner.  This is the view that will greet you as you look towards the Southwest, just like the travelers of the Santa Fe Trail might have done.

Because of the close contact between the Santa Fe Trail travelers and the Indians, nerves were often edge as they camped in the area of Pawnee Rock .  The seventeen year-old Kit Carson was startled awake one night while camping below the rocks and fired his rifle in the direction of the movement.  In the morning he discovered that he had shot his own mule.

The view at right looks towards the northeast and home for travelers on the old Santa Fe Trail.  They would have been several weeks out of Kansas City by this point, and approximately one half way on their journey.  Most of the trail traffic was done by merchants taking goods to Santa Fe to sell at a handsome profit.

Pawnee Rock was donated to the state of Kansas in 1908 by Ben Unruh and the stone monument in the photo at right was erected in 1912 by the Daughters of the American Revolution and others.  It's dedicated to the pioneers who traveled the Santa Fe Trail.  At right is one of two bronze plaques which are fastened to the Dakota Sandstone of Pawnee Rock itself.  The plaque in the picture at right was put in place by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1941.

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