Chapter VII: Introduction (6)

[144] Striking the Arkansaw about opposite Coolidge, in Kansas near the border of Colorado. Camp of Nov. 4, 1821, which Fowler presently mentions, was a mile lower down. As he says on Nov. 5 that he went 9 m. to reach “a large crick” (Two Butte creek), he appears to have struck the Arkansaw 8 m. below that creek—_i.e._, about opposite Coolidge, as just said.

[145] Vicinity of Syracuse, Hamilton Co., Kas.

[146] No doubt Braxton Cooper, from Daniel Boone’s salt works, which were about 4 m. from Franklin, Mo. See Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, p. 18, and Pike, ed. of 1895, pp. 367, 570.

[147] George Douglas, Nathaniel Pryor, and one unidentifiable man. The blind word looks like “Rohland” or “Soulard,” but is nothing like any name previously occurring in this MS. It must be that of some man who joined the party at Taos, or else the missing Christian name of one of the party mustered on p. 4.

[148] Unidentified—named for one of the party. See back, Oct. 22, p. 26.

[149] Hitherto Fowler has retraced his steps down the Arkansaw, and the points passed are easily reckoned by back references. But here he leaves the river to cut off the large bend it makes in sweeping past Ford, where Mulberry creek comes in. For this “dry route” see Pike, ed. of 1895, pp. 433, 434.

[150] Of our author = Walnut creek, near Great Bend: see back, notes at p. 22 and p. 23.

[151] Vicinity of Raymond, Rice Co.

[152] Cow creek or one of its branches; vicinity of Lyons, seat of Rice Co.

Fowler has left the Arkansaw and taken up a devious ’cross country route, which is to bring him through Kansas into Missouri near Kansas City and so on through Independence, Mo., to Fort Osage, on the Missouri river. In 1822 the road which soon became the long famous Santa Fé caravan route from Independence to the great bend of the Arkansaw was hardly established. This went through Council Grove, by the most direct way which the traders found it convenient to take. For an examination of this route see Pike, ed. of 1895, pp. 517-522. It is interesting to note, as showing that no such route as this had become established and well known when Fowler went through, that he deviates widely from what would have been his most direct and in every way most eligible line of march. As we recover his trail we shall find it to be one now unknown, looping far to the S. into Butler Co., then passing heads of the Verdigris, crossing the Neosho below the mouth of the Cottonwood, and so on eastward with the requisite northing. I regard the trail we now take up as something of an unexpected discovery.

[153] From any position in which last night’s camp can have been, it is impossible to bring Fowler to the Little Arkansaw on any such course as _N._ 60° E. 30 miles. That course and distance would take him far beyond the Little Arkansaw, to some point about the heads of Turkey cr., N. of McPherson. Moreover, he would never have seen the other party making down the Arkansaw. Once more, the change I have made in reading the text is required by what follows. He can be brought in “30” miles _S._ 60° E. to the Little Arkansaw somewhere about the mouth of Turkey creek, in Harvey Co. Observe that to-morrow’s course, S. 65° E., is practically in the same direction he travels to-day.

[154] Of the Little Arkansaw, running S.; these are the Emma creeks and Sand creek, the latter flowing through Newton, Harvey Co.

[155] Walnut creek—not to be confounded with the other of the same name which joins the Arkansaw near Great Bend. This Walnut creek falls into the Arkansaw near the border of Oklahoma, being the one called White river by Fowler on Oct. 9 (p. 16), one of whose branches is still known as Whitewater. Camp is on one of these, near the boundary between Harvey and Butler counties. We now realize what a roundabout route Fowler is taking from the great bend of the Arkansaw to Fort Osage on the Missouri, being far S. of the regular “Santa Fé Trail” that was soon to become established.

[156] Of the same Walnut creek, on a course nearly E., in Butler Co.

[157] Of the same Walnut creek—the second branch above said being the main source of this stream, interlocking with a source of the south fork of Cottonwood river, nearly on the line between Butler and Chase counties. Camp about the place called Sycamore Springs, in Butler Co.

[158] Not quite yet—Fowler has still to pass the heads of the south fork of the Cottonwood, which he mistakes for those of the Verdigris. No head of the Verdigris flows anything like west, as he says that branch does on which he camps. All his indications set camp unmistakably at or near Thurman, Chase Co., on that branch of Thurman creek which runs westerly. This creek is joined at Matfield Green by two others, the three together composing the south fork of the Cottonwood, running N. This is a queer place to find a man on his way from Great Bend to Kansas City—but here he is!

[159] Head of Verdigris river, in Chase Co., at the distance and in the direction said from Thurman.

[160] The Verdigris itself and four of its collateral heads, named Camp, Fawn, Rock, and Moon. Fowler’s trail here crosses that of Pike, who was camped on one of these creeks Sept. 10, 1806. For the remarkable fan-shaped leash of streamlets which compose the headwaters of the Verdigris, see Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 400. Camp in vicinity of Olpe, Lyon Co.

[161] The Neosho is struck at a point between Neosho Rapids and the mouth of the Cottonwood, some 8 m. a little S. of E. from Emporia, seat of Lyon Co.

[162] Marais des Cygnes creek, continuation of Marais des Cygnes river, as the main course of the Osage river in Kansas is still called, by curious survival of the pure French phrase. This stream is struck in the vicinity of Reading, Lyon Co., nearly on the border of Osage Co.; whence Fowler proceeds about E. N. E. across Cherry creek, to camp on the divide between Marais des Cygnes creek and its Salt creek branch—somewhere between Olivet and Osage City, seat of Osage Co.

[163] Salt creek, crossed in the vicinity of Lyndon, seat of Osage Co.

[164] Dragoon creek of present nomenclature, considered by Fowler as the main Osage river. It is a large stream, about the size of the Marais des Cygnes itself, separated from the latter by Salt creek—all three of these coming together within a mile or two of each other, in the immediate vicinity of Quenemo, Osage Co., close to the border of Franklin Co. For Dragoon cr., see Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 520. Fowler is now nearing what was soon to become the regular Santa Fé caravan route from Independence, Mo., to the great bend of the Arkansaw—after having needlessly made a great bend of his own southward from that direct line of travel.

[165] Appanoose creek, a branch of the Marais des Cygnes which falls in near Ottawa, seat of Franklin Co., into which Fowler has passed from Osage Co.

“In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition to the country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done remarkably well, determined the next season to change his objective point to Santa Fé,” says Inman, p. 38. When at or near the Caches on the Arkansaw, he left that stream and took his party across country on the Cimarron or dry route; but they were obliged to return, after suffering horribly from thirst, and follow up the Arkansaw route to Taos.

“The virtual commencement of the Santa Fé trade dates from 1822”; and in 1824 was made the first attempt to introduce wagons, etc., says Inman, p. 51. According to Gregg, a better authority, both pack animals and wagons were used 1822-25, but after that wagons only. According to Fowler’s passage above, we see that Becknell had taken wagons in 1822 if not earlier; and thus the party to which Col. Marmaduke was attached, and which reached Santa Fé with wagons in 1824, was not the first to pass through Kansas on wheels.

[166] One of these is Eight Mile creek, next branch of the Marais des Cygnes, falling in near the mouth of the Appanoose, at Ottawa. As “all the Watters runs South East,” we know that Fowler is still on the Osage watershed, and I am inclined to set his camp on one of the heads of Ottawa creek, some 6 m. W. of Baldwin City, Douglas Co., perhaps not far from Willow Springs camp of the traders; for which see Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 519.

[167] Heads of the Ottawa creek last said, especially of its East fork. Fowler passes Baldwin City to camp on the divide between the Osage and the Kansan waters.

[168] Position not exactly determinable, somewhere between Baldwin City and Edgerton, in the vicinity of Black Jack: see Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 519. The divide is here between heads of Big Bull creek, tributary to the Osage, on the S., and heads of Captain creek, a branch of Kansas river, on the N.—Captain creek being the first branch from the S. below the mouth of Wakarusa creek, which latter falls into the Kansas at Eudora. From present camp Fowler passes into the watershed of the Kansas river.

[169] Cedar creek, a branch of Kansas river, as Fowler supposed. Camp on it in the vicinity of Olathe, Johnson Co., Kas. See Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 510. The direct distance is much less than “22” m.; but the party wandered about all the morning.

[170] Turkey creek or a branch of it; this falls into the Kansas river within present limits of Kansas City, Mo. Camp on or near the Kansas-Missouri line, 5 m. from where the road then crossed Big Blue river.

[171] Big Blue river, falling into the Missouri between Kansas City and Independence, Jackson Co., Mo. See Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, p. 32, and Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 519. Fowler has just passed from “the Indian Territory” into “the States”—that is, from Kansas into Missouri.

[172] One of several between Big and Little Blue rivers, at or near Independence, Mo.

[173] Little Blue river, the Hay Cabin creek of Lewis and Clark. See ed. of 1893, p. 31.

[174] At Fort point, later called Sibley, on the Missouri, between Independence and Lexington, Mo. Fort Osage was built in Sept., 1808, was sometimes called Fort Clark, and in Fowler’s time was still an extreme frontier establishment. See Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, p. 30.

[175] Covington, Kenton Co., Ky., on the Ohio opp. Cincinnati.

INDEX.

A

Adana, Col., 35, 36

Adobe cr., 48

Alamosa cr., 115

American antelope, 12

Anderson, Mrs. M. B., xxiv

Annals of Iowa, 5

Antelope park, 125

Antilocapra americana, 12

Apache cr., 98
nation, 137

Apishapa r., 49, 50

Appanoose cr. or r., 167, 168

Arapaho chief, 62, 64, 66, 67, 70, 76, 77

Arapaho Inds., 54, 55, 57, 59, 65, 68, 69, 78, 82, 85, 87, 92

Arkansas, xx, 1
City, 16

Arkansaw band of Osage Inds., 6
r., _passim_

Arundinaria macrosperma, 2

Ashland District, Ky., x

A., T. and S. F. R. R., 35, 146

B

Baca Co., Col., 150, 151, 152, 153

Badito Cone, 99

Bad Salean or Saline r., 12

Baldwin City, Kas., 168, 169

Barbo, Barbu, ——, 4, 17, 84, 138

Barclay, ——, 80

Barlow, Sanderson and Co., 47

Barton Co., Kas., 22

Bean and Saunders’ Salt Works, 2

Bear cr., 152

Beard, ——, 143

Beaver cr., 11, 13

Becknal, Becknell, Capt., 167, 168

Beckwourth, James P., xxi, 79

Been, ——, see Bean and Saunders

Belle Pointe, Ark., 1, 4

Bent, Charles, 47
Col. William, 47
Co., Col., 38, 41, 47
George, 47
Robert, 47

Bent’s ft., new and old, 47

Big Blue r., 171
Bull cr., 169
Coon cr., 22, 26
cr., 8
Sandy cr., 32, 36
Timbers, 47

Black Jack, Kas., 169
Peak, 145

Blue Mounds, 7, 9

Boggs, Mr., 172, 173

Boiling Spring r., 79

Bonhomme, ——, 4

Bonner, T. D., 79

Bono, ——, 4, 5, 69, 84, 88, 91

Boone, Daniel, 154

Boone’s lick, 154

Booneville Col., 68

Bradford, Maj., 1

Brush cr., x

Buck cr., 11, 12

Buffalo cr., see Big Coon cr.

Builder of Towns, 6

Bull cr., 21

Butler, 72
Co., Kas., 16, 161, 162, 163

Butte Springs, 153