Council Grove, Kansas |From The Interactive Santa Fe Trail | Kansas Sights |

"Rendezvous on the Sante Fe Trail"

Historically, Council Grove is here by being so important to the Santa Fe Trail. Even today, Council Grove is called the "Rendezvous on the Santa Fe Trail". Supplies from the eastern states came fairly quickly down the Missouri River to Independence or Westport or Ft. Leavenworth. From there, the goods were loaded onto wagons. So each year in late spring traders would pack up their merchandise and head for Council Grove to wait for enough wagons to form a caravan traveling to Santa Fe, NM and its Plaza.

The leaders of the Great and Little Osage people signed a treaty on August 10, 1825, with three U.S. Commissioners, granting American and Mexican traders free passage along the Santa Fe Trail through Osage territory for the sum of $800.

Hays House was built in 1857, and the Conn Stone Store, in 1858. Cottage House Hotel (north on Neosho Street) was built in 1867.

The KATY Railroad depot wasn't built until around 1895. But the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad (KATY) reached Council Grove in 1869, and the Missouri Pacific in 1885.
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Kansas Heritage