Ft. Larned Is 150 Years Old By Sharon Black

The Santa Fe Trail is 150 years old. From Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the trail was the interstate of the day. 

The Santa Fe Trail Center Museum and Ft. Larned, five miles west of Larned, Kansas, on Hwy. 156, celebrated with activities at the sight, which is a National Park. Plans were made to commemorate the 200th anniversary of opening of the Santa Fe Trail to trade.  On June 10, 1821, William Becknell published a notice in the Missouri Intelligencer newspaper soliciting participants for a trip “to the westward for the purpose of trading for Horses & Mules, and catching Wild Animals of every description, that we may think advantageous.”

One of the events was on Sept. 5^th at the Santa Fe Trail Museum. El Dean Holthus gave a presentation on the history of the Civil War and the events leading up to and opening of land in Kansas. One result of that was the beginning of Home on the Range via Dr. Brewster Higley and the building of his dugout/cabin in northern Smith County, Kansas, . Home on the Range is the state song of Kansas and is also now a television movie of the same name. The search for the rightful author of the song is the plot of the movie. It stars Rance Howard and Buck Taylor. 

The museum holds attractions of the trade days. (More from Sharon…)
Sharon Black is from Smith Center, Kansas. We welcome her to our team of volunteers.
Sharon Black has been writing for many years including newspapers, short stories, and as a publisher. She was born in Nebraska and has lived in Kansas most of her life. In her hometown of Smith Center, Kansas,  Willa Cather’s hometown is to the north and Bob Dole’s hometown is to the south. Sharon is a press release writer for the National Parks Arts Foundation and writes for b U n e k e  magazine. The biggest project she has accomplished is the co-writer of the TV movie Home on the Range. The movie is about the song, which is the state song of Kansas and the lawsuit surrounding it in the 1930s and finding the rightful author of the song. Sharon is distantly related to the Mississippi writer Eudora Welty.