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Jeanne Riggs
Burlingame
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NE Kansas
Burlingame Explorations
Learn more about Burlingame by following the links below:

Santa Fe Trail

Address: Across
Burlingame, KS 66413

Website:

About this Exploration:

 

Remnants of the Santa Fe Trail

McGee-Harris Stage Station

The McGee-Harris Stage Station is about 1 mile south of U.S. 56 on the east bank of 110 Mile Creek, east of Burlingame . The stage station was started in the 1850s by Fry McGee, who also erected a toll bridge over 110 Mile Creek here. Harris, McGee's son-in-law, operated the station, following McGee's death, from 1861 to 1866, when this segment of the trail closed. Crumbling building remains are all that are left today.

Switzler Creek Crossing

The Switzler Creek Crossing is at the eastern edge of Burlingamevery near the present day U.S.56 bridge. A toll bridge was operated here from 1847 to the 1860s. It was at Burlingame that the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway first made its first contact with the Santa Fe Trail in 1869. The trail went down the main street of Burlingame.

Dragoon Creek Crossing

The Dragoon Creek Crossing, a natural rock crossing point on Dragoon Creek, is 3 miles northwest of Burlingame and north of K-32. This natural crossing still appears as it did in the Trail days. The Dragoon soldiers patrolled the trail for robbers, thieves, or any unruly activity.  Dragoon Creek was named for these soldiers.

Havana Stage Station site

The Havana Stage Station is about 1 mile west of Dragoon Creek and just south of K-31. Reportedly built in 1858, the station was complemented by a store and a hotel. Today, only the remains of the stage station are discernible.

Samuel Hunt Grave 36K

The Samuel Hunt Grave is located just north of K-31 and about 0.5 mile west of the Havana Stage Station site. Private Samuel Hunt, U.S. Army Dragoons, served with Colonel Henry Dodge's Rocky Mountain expedition in 1835, and died at this location on the return march to Fort Leavenworth. This is the earliest known gravesite of a soldier on the Santa Fe Trail.

Soldier Creek Crossing

The Soldier Creek crossing is southwest of the Samuel Hunt grave, where visible Santa Fe Trail ruts lead to the creek. There are unmarked gravesites at Soldier Creek Crossing. The creek is reportedly named after an army unit that suffered heavy losses to cholera at this location in 1851.  This was perhaps the May-June expedition of Bvt. Col. Edwin V. Sumner and First Dragoons heading west to establish Ft. Union. At least 35 men were lost to cholera along the Trail on route between the Kansas River and the Santa Fe Trail crossing of the Arkansas River.  The exact locations of such gravesites simply have not been found.

 

 

contact info
Tricia Kline

Burlingame, KS 66413
Phone: 785.224.1403
 
Melissa Miller-Atwood
107 N. Topeka Ave #208
Burlingame, KS 66413
Phone: 785.554.8500
 
Christi Droege

Burlingame, Kansas 66413
Phone: 785.224.7340
 
 
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