Oak Grove & the Osage Trail

Oak Grove and the Osage Trail. . , The Oak Grove School was built facing the only road that existed here in 1877 , the Osage Trail. Prior to 1865, the Neosho River valley (including the site where you now stand) was part of the Osage Reservation. At one time a large Osage village was located just east of here, adjacent to a popular ford across the Neosho River. This ford, known to early settlers as Trotter's Ford, was an integral part of the Osage Trail network. The principal routes of the Osage Trail stretched from SW Missouri into SE Kansas (the Osage Continental Trail) and from NE Kansas southward into NE Oklahoma (the Osage Trace). U.S. Government survey maps from 1865 show that these two great trails actually intersected here in Section 36. The Osage Continental Trail crossed the Neosho at Trotter's Ford, then meandered westward up and over a bluff about one mile east of here (pictured above). The trail then turned south through the middle of Section 25 (passing near the location of the original Oak Grove log schoolhouse and cemetery) and then crossed into the middle of Section 36 directly in front of the Oak Grove 1877 stone schoolhouse site. The Continental Trail then intersected the Osage Trace just one-half mile further south (in the middle of Section 36). , The Osage Trail was not only used by the Osage throughout the 1800's, but also by the U.S. military during the Civil War, by stagecoaches delivering mail to post-Civil War settlements prior to the advent of the railroads, and by thousands of settlers who migrated to SE Kansas after the war. Some notable parties who would have traveled this section of the Osage Trail include: Washington Irving (who visited the Osage in this area in 1832 on his way to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory), the Charles Ingalls family (of Little House on the Prairie fame) during their trek to and from Kansas (in 1869-1871), and the posse that searched for the notorious Bender family in the Spring of 1873. , In Chapter 2 of her first novel, "Little House on the Prairie," Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the story of her family crossing a flooded river, later repeating this in her personal autobiography. Her detailed description of the event strongly points to Trotter's Ford being the location where this event occurred. So, when you stand in front of the Oak Grove schoolhouse today, you are standing where the Ingalls family traveled on their way down to the river. You can listen to a reading of this wonderful story at the first QR code link below. You can also hear more about the overall Oak Grove/Osage Trail connection in an "Uncovering Kansas" podcast in the second QR code link below.