Santa Fe Trail Ruts

Have I convinced you to come visit us in Kansas, yet?  If not, I'm sure this will get you here: we've got ruts!

Photo Credit: santafetrailresearch.com

Not far from Fort Larned National Historic Site is a plot of land run by the Park Service that has not been plowed over a million times.  There, you can climb up on a platform and view the actual wagon ruts of the Santa Fe trail and imagine what it would have been like to sit in a rickety wagon for 1,200 miles for the express purpose of bringing gold and other goodies back from the New Mexico territory.

 Ruts shown horizontally just over halfway up the photo

What can I say?  I'm in a rut.

Larned has its own chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association whose chapter meeting I'm missing today due to transportation issues and the 500-degree heat.  Rest-assured that if you come to town for the next meeting day, you will be enthusiastically invited to join the group by Professor Clapsaddle himself.  I sure hope to someday be another Santa Fe Trail enthusiast, but for now, I just enjoy the serenity of this 40 acre swath of preserved ruts and hope I don't step on a rattlesnake as I walk to the viewing platform.