The Chisholm Trail Series, inspired by 4America, has always been one of my favorite series of caches. I enjoy finding the Chisholm Trail markers and reflecting on what it must have been like in the late 1800's and think it is so awesome that these well maintained markers exist today to mark this time in Kansas and American history. Over three million cattle were driven along this trail from Texas to Abilene, KS in the five years from 1867 to 1872. Now that's a lot of beef!
Probably no greater or more vivid description has ever been given of the Chisholm Trail than that of Charles Moreau Harger, writing in 1892:
"From two hundred to four hundred yards wide, beaten into the bare earth, it reached over hill and through valley for over six hundred miles, a chocolate band amid the green prairies, uniting the North and the South. As the marching hoofs wore it down and the wind blew and the waters washed the earth away it became lower than the surrounding territory, and was flanked by little banks of sand, drifted there by the wind. Bleaching skulls and skeletons of weary brutes who had perished on the journey gleamed along its borders, and here and there was a low mound showing where some cowboy had literally "died with his boots on." Occasionally a dilapidated wagon frame told of a break down, and spotting the emerald reaches on either side were the barren circle-like "bedding-grounds," each a record that a great herd had there spent a night.
The wealth of an empire passed over the trail, leaving its mark for decades to come. The traveler of today sees the wide trough-like course, with ridges being washed down by the rains, and with fences and farms of the settlers and the more civilized redmen intercepting its track and forgets the wild and arduous life of which it was the exponent." [1]
The cache is located near the entrance of Jeeps Motorcycle Club and although our family has been coming here for years to ride quads, I had never noticed the nearby Chisholm Marker on the north side of 101st. It was my youngest son, Jonathan, who noticed it a few months ago and since he has heard me talk about this series so much, he asked me if there was a geocache here. Surprised that there wasn't, I decided to change that! Thanks, 4A, for letting me contribute to this awesome series! Find out more about the Chisholm Trail by reading below, visiting Wikipedia or visiting the related webpage above.
Chisholm Trail History
Jesse Chisholm and Joseph McCoy -
Scot-Cherokee trader Jesse Chisholm first marked the famous Chisholm Trail in 1864 for his wagons. It started at the confluence of the Little and Big Arkansas Rivers and went to Jesse Chisholm's trading post, southwest of present day Oklahoma City.
Jesse Chisholm used the trail to trade with the U.S. Army and Native American tribes (Indians) from his trading post at the present site of the Twin Lakes Shopping Center in Wichita to his southern trading post in Indian Territories. The Wichita Indians used the Chisholm Trail when they moved from their native territory to the mouth of the Little Arkansas and also when they returned in 1868.
Joseph G. McCoy, a cattle buyer from Illinois, was instrumental in extending the Chisholm Trail from present day Wichita to Abilene, Kansas, to promote and establish cattle market for thousands of longhorn cattle from Texas. In 1867, McCoy built stockyards that he advertised throughout Texas. Approximately 35,000 cattle followed the Chisholm Trail during the first season to Abilene in 1867. Through Joseph McCoy's promotional and entrepreneurial efforts Abilene became a prosperous and famous cattletown from 1867 to 1870.
In the five years from 1867 to 1872, more than three million head of cattle were driven up the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene.
By 1870 thousands of Texas longhorn cattle were being driven over the Chisholm Trail to the Union Pacific (later the Kansas Pacific) Railroad shipping center at Abilene. By 1871 as many as 5,000 cowboys were often paid off during a single day. Abilene became known as a rough town in the Old West.
The Chisholm Trail in Kansas generally follows a true north route through or near the following communities in Central Kansas: Caldwell, Clearwater, Wichita, Newton, Goessel, Lehigh and Abilene.
As local interest waned in the cattle business in Abilene in the early 1870s, Ellsworth and other points along the Kansas Pacific Railroad established a market for the Texas cattle business. The cattle business on the Chisholm Trail moved south to Newton, Kansas in 1871 as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad built to that point on the Chisholm Trail. Newton became one of the most notorious and violent towns from the cattle business in its one-year reign as a prominent cattle town. [2]
PLEASE NOTE: The Jeeps Motorcycle Club facility is owned and operated by club members. Access to the race tracks and grounds beyond the gate are limited to club members only. Paying bystanders are welcome on race days. Please be respectful and appreciative of this club's permission for the placement of this geocache by practicing CITO and not trespassing beyond their fenced property. Please do not block access to the gate entrance, use stealth as always, and keep in mind that the Board's approval of this placement does not mean that every member knows of its existence! See their website to learn more about membership or obtain information about scheduled races. THANK YOU!
