Rendezvous on the Trail

Rendezvous on the Trail. . , This was once a place of early morning racket, dust, and confusion, as wagons bound for Santa Fe rattled and jockeyed for position to form a train. Wagonmasters shouted, "Catch up!" to the teamsters - then "Stretch out!" as the wagons began to move., In the early 1820s, only pack trains and a few wagons headed west to Santa Fe, but, by 1846, traffic had increased dramatically. That year, the ring of a blacksmith's hammer clanging against the anvil echoed over Council Grove as he repaired wagons and shod horses, mules, and oxen., A large grove of hardwood trees - the last one encountered by westbound trains - along with water and grazing nearby made this spot an ideal campground for trail travelers., Soldiers, freighters, gold seekers, and adventurers collected here to join other travelers, and to organize into caravans before crossing the 625 miles of mostly treeless plains. Members elected officers and established rules of travel. Most years, freighting took place from May to October., In 1863, a local merchant recorded that 3,072 men, 3,000 wagons, 618 horses, 20,812 oxen, 8,046 mules, and 98 carriages hauled 15,000 tons of freight valued at $40 million through Council Grove to New Mexico., "There s a quantity of fine timber consisting of oaks, hickory, walnut....Each company coming out generally stop here a day or so to repair their wagons, rest the stock, get timbers for the remainder of the journey; these are lashed under the wagons." , - Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846