Our Past Is Present January 2, 2019

January 2, 2019

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today’s story comes from the research and an article written by the late Ron Harris titled “Frontier Trails and Travels”. The earliest trail to this area was the Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley Military Road, which opened in 1853.  This trail was made to build and supply Fort Riley. In 1858 gold was discovered along the banks of Cherry Creek in what was then western Kansas Territory.  Gold Fever erupted and a gold rush started to the Rocky Mountain gold fields.  There were two trails to the region.  One was the Oregon Trail, to the north of Junction City.  It was followed to the South Fork of the Platt River to Cherry Creek and then on to Denver.  The other route at that time followed the Santa Fe Trail, south of Junction City to Bent’s Old Fort and then followed an Indian-Mountain Man trading trail north to Denver and Cherry Creek.

            On May 19^th, 1859, the L&PP Stage coach Line signed a contract to carry the mail to Denver and on to Salt Lake City, Utah.  However, only two months later L&PP ran its last coach over their own route.  They had enough of the Kansas trails and decided to abandon them for the Oregon Trail. 

            This move left Junction City and other towns to the east in a vacuum.  Within days the “Junction City Sentinel” newspaper reported a shorter route than that of the L&PP.  It had long been argued that the coach line route could be shortened by following the Smoky Hill River on to Denver.  It would take off about 189 miles.  However, it was not mentioned that the Smoky Hill River disappeared about 130 miles short of the goldfields and civilization stopped at …. Junction City.  And… that’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.