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Just a short walk from available parking, a short walk from a picnic pavilion, and open from dawn 'til dusk.
Pawnee Rock, one of the most famous and beautiful landmarks on the Santa Fe Trail, is located in Pawnee Rock State Park, just north of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, United States. Originally over 150 feet (46 m) tall, railroad construction stripped it of some 15 to 20 feet (6.1 m) in height for road bed material. Pawnee Rock was added to the National Register of Historic Places around 1970.
As a cacher, you may be here or have passed by here to visit the "Pawnee Rock" Virtual Cache (GC39ED), which leads you to learn much of the history of this rock. With the spirit of the Earthcache, this cache is here to teach you about the geology that made Pawnee Rock ... Pawnee Rock.
To travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, this sandstone citadel marked the halfway point of the trail and was one of the most prominent landmarks on their long journey. Native Americans were said to have met at Pawnee Rock and reputedly used it as a vantage point to spot bison herds and approaching wagon trains. Stand atop Pawnee Rock while learning about the Santa Fe Trail, enjoy a picnic under the shaded pavilion, and contemplate the rich history of the Santa Fe Trail traders and the Pawnee Indians.
Pawnee Rock is made up of Dakota Sandstone. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Dakota Sandstone stands out due to its shallow-marine deposits with intermittent mud flat sediments, and an occasional stream deposit. Dakota Sandstone is more generally stated as the make-up of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. While not always clear, Dakota Sandstone is generally defined as early Cretaceous aged formations (65.5-145.5 million years ago).
Pawnee Rock has a softer make-up than the sandstone you will see in Colorado. This is why it is so easy to carve into it (Before you try – DON’T. Some of the etchings into the rock date back to frontier days, and we want to preserve those). Sandstone is also prone to erosion, be it by wind, water, glaciers, or combinations there of. Many natural sandstone features, like those seen in the Wisconsin Dells or the Antelope Canyons are directly the result of erosion. With that knowledge, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Pawnee Rock is the result of erosion as well, dating back to pre-historic times.
But one of the interesting things about this location is that some of the earliest European discoverers wrongly identified Pawnee Rock’s formation. A surveyor from frontier days thought Pawnee Rock was “Volcanic like Pomestone” or more commonly known as Pumice. Pumice is formed when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano; typically when lava and water is mixed. The rapid cooling and depressurization caused by this unusual mix creates bubbles in the molten lava, during which the rapid cooling also freezes the bubbles in place. This could lead to soft quality that is similar to Pawnee Rock’s geology. While volcanic activity occurred in Kansas as recently as 90 million years ago (falling within the Cretaceous period when Pawnee Rock was formed) and as close as Riley County, there is no evidence that pumice formed at this location. Besides, the telltale porous (or bubble-like) nature of pumice is visible to even the non-geologist.
Now that you’re here and you learned a bit about how Pawnee Rock was formed; its time to learn a little more. Around the walkways along the top of the rock are a number of interpretive signs. Most of them deal with the rich frontier history of the rock, of the Santa Fe Trail, and of the Native American tribes that lived near here. But a few talk as well about the geology of the rock. These will be important in completing this cache.
To claim this cache you need to do the following:
A] E-mail me answers to the following questions:
1) It was stated that Pawnee Rock was formed by erosion. This is because you are standing on the edge of what pre-historic feature (not the Dakota Formation of rock, the edge of something that isn't here anymore ... or else they would build a resort here, I bet)?
2) It was also stated that someone thought that Pawnee Rock was volcanic. Who was it?
B] Take a picture of you, your gps device, or an identifying feature to you (like me and my backpack) at your favorite location inside the park. However, no pictures to be taken of the information signs where the question answers can be seen … nor of the monument (as that will give clues to virtual cache). Please do not log your cache until you can upload the picture at the same time.
The park is open from dawn to dusk. While at this location, please respect the posted rules and times and as always Cache In and Trash Out.
The information used for the geological text comes from either the information given at Pawnee Prairie State Park, or through websites approved bye the USGS and / or the WikiProject Geology or WikiProject Volcanoes (with verified sources).
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