You are following an ancient travel route
*Go West Young Man & Grow with the Country."
For most of its first century, the United States population clustered along the Atlantic Coast. However, its 1848 victory over Mexico in the Mexican-American War & the 1849 discovery of gold in California, & later in the Rockies, brought settlers through the Great Plains & to the West Coast. The story of Western Vistas, therefore, is one of westward movement with its many routes along the way eventually helping settle many places still in resistance today.
Smoky Hill River Valley Transportation Corridor
The Smoky Hill River, part of the Mississippi River watershed, transects Kansas from its eastern terminus at the Missouri River, west to its headwaters on the plains of Colorado. For untold centuries, Native American cultures used the valley of the Smoky Hill River as a trade route. Its course was followed by Spanish, French, & Americans on exploration expeditions.
The first major use of the route began with the discovery of gold on the front range of the Rocky Mountains in 1858. Hundreds of gold-seekers, in search of their fortunes, braved the challenges presented by travel over inaccurately mapped territory. Travelers often arrived with stories of hunger & death, & travel virtually ceased on "Starvation Trail" by 1859. However, the government recognized the potential of the Smoky Hill route & established four military posts on the banks of the Smoky Hill River, from Camp Center (Fort Riley) in 1853 to Camp Pond Creek (Fort Wallace) in 1865, the last & westernmost of these posts.
The route rose into prominence in 1865 when Butterfield's Overland Despatch began implementing freight & staging operations along the route. The Kansas Pacific Railway followed opening travel to Denver in 1870. Cheyenne, Araphao, Kiowa, & Sioux people fiercely resisted travel along the route from 1865 until the final conflicts associated with the Cheyenne Exodus through Kansas in 1878. As automobiles became more common, the Victory Highway was established from Kansas City, Missouri to San Francisco, California, followed by US Route 40, one of the original 1926 US Highways. Today, Interstate 70 through Kansas follows a similar route. Within a 150-mile radius of this location, there occurred more significant historical events during the 19th century phase of High Plains history than any other place in the world.
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