Santa Fe Trail Ruts Memorial

Location:  9 miles West of Dodge City on Hwy US 50.

Nearest Towns:  Dodge City, Cimarron

Contact:  ph. 316/227-8188

It was a few miles west of this stone marker, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1906, that  the Santa Fe Trail split.  The exact point of the crossing was in the area between the present-day towns of Cimarron and Ingalls, depending on the condition of the Arkansas River.  Those who intended to follow the shorter but more dangerous "Dry" route crossed the Arkansas River which runs in the area of the trees that are in the background of the photo at left.  This route was called "Jornada" or the "Journey of Death" by the Spanish.  For those traders and travelers choosing this route, the most dangerous section of the entire Santa Fe Trail was just ahead. 

The longer but safer "Wet" route of the Santa Fe Trail continued west along the Arkansas River.

Through a joint effort of the National Park Service and the Boot Hill Museum of Dodge City, this area of Santa Fe Trail Ruts (visible as the depressions in the grass behind this marker) was preserved for future generations.  An interpretive display is also located at the area which explains the importance of the Santa Fe Trail and it's impact on the country.

About two-thirds of the approximately 800 mile Santa Fe Trail was in Kansas.  To stand in the depressions is to link with the past.   This is a quiet place.  Standing here in the swaying prairie grass, you can almost hear the creaking of the wooden spoked wheels of the trader's wagons.  It's easy to imagine the growing anxiety of the teamsters as they approached what they knew to be the most demanding portion of the trail.  For the first time travelers on the wagon trains, the feeling of adventure they had felt when they joined the outfit would now have been replaced by near exhaustion caused by long hard days followed by sleepless nights on watch.  They would have by now heard the stories from the trail veterans of Indian attacks and of getting lost without water in the desert which now lay directly before them.  Such were the realities of life on the Santa Fe Trail as it passed by this point. 

The sun sets through the native prairie grass at the Santa Fe Trail Memorial--just as it has set on the days of the trail itself.   Today the freight is carried by locomotives on steel rails and trucks on concrete highways.  It's easy for us to forget as we travel in climate controlled automobiles along smooth roadways eating up the miles at a rate of more than one every 60 seconds that once man and beast struggled to deliver freight along this same route.  The highways and rails still follow the same route, just the times have changed.

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