3 trails

We have had several posts looking at places with the Gardner name. One of these is Gardner, KS near which is Gardner Junction which was on the three trails: Santa Fe, Oregon, California. This is unique, to be where the travelers all were at the same place. The research query was in regard to some particular places, but we know that we need to get a more full list (pending).

Recently, we were in the area where the Trails were going toward Gardner. As well, we thought to look at more details (below). This same route was taken by the New England party (men and women) that left via a port in New York and sailed to Chicago before traveling over to St. Louis and west to Kansas City. They got to an area and established Lawrence, KS (Final migration, Lawrence and Kansas).

On looking deeper, we found the 3-Trails Corridor (defunct link). This was funded by a school initiative that looked to be associated with the Lewis and Clark celebration: 3-Trails Village Community Improvement District. We will look at this further. But, here are a couple of maps. One is from our earlier post. The other depicts points along the route.

Gardner, KS

We have had several posts on this theme and will be adding more. It's about time for a summary look which will appear in the next issue of The Gardner Annals, Vol. V, No. 1. The trails played a major role in the western movement. Too, we need to add in the Mormon experience.

As mentioned in an early post, there were to sea routes to California: around the Cape, two  voyages linked by a trek across Central America.

The gist is that this type of detail work is what one expects from a location. Same goes for a family. There may be major overviews, but a lot of the grunt work needs to be done by the family. Dr. Frank showed us one example. We still have lots of work to do.

So, there are several pending bits of work with Gardner Junction which is the southern trek out of the Kansas City area. This route was fine for the folks going to Santa Fe. But, it was out of the way for the California (gold rush) and Oregon trekkers. It went too far south. Young bucks figured out that they could continue north by water to St. Joseph, MO. This area became last stopping point where dry goods and other merchants had supplies at hand. The travelers still had to cross the Missouri river.

As an aside, some earlier posts looked at the trek from New England to Lawrence, KS. The movement was by foot, for the most part, in the last part of the journey. And, there was a river to be forded prior to arriving at Lawrence. So, this was practice for something that would be a continual source of grief all of the way across the country.

Far cry, one might say, from the easy of rushing down the Interstate. BTW, that subject is of interest, too, since many of those merchants were Yankees.

Perspective: From the KC area to Fort Larned (see the Kansas part of the Santa Fe trail - about 2/3 across the State), the experience was a daily grind for three weeks (makes "are we there yet?" which is known from another perspective to be quite tame). At least, at some point, those same persons saw the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. We have a post on that, too.

This image shows the area near Gardner KS where one finds a kiosk with information about the 3 Trails and Gardner Junction.

Remarks: Modified: 06/24/2022

08/07/2020 -- In this post, we are looking at two disparate spots that share a name, however there are many points in-between. Like Eudora, KS. Where "The Wakarusa meets the Kaw" is on their history site and is an example of local lore getting some attention. See "Along the Western Trails."

08/27/2020 -- Removed stale pointer to 3TrailsCorridor which dealt with the portion in MO: The 3-Trails Corridor follows the traveled way of the Santa Fe,  Oregon, and California national historic trails. It extends from Wayne City Landing on the Missouri River in Sugar Creek, Missouri, where the river boats off-loaded onto wagons and pack animals, southwesterly to Gardner Junction in Gardner, Kansas.

06/24/2022 -- Updated links to Eudora's website as topic continues to be of interest: A Ride to Kansas.