On the Trail: The Flint Hills, Kansas

"Santa Fe Trail survey commissioners met the chiefs of the Kanza, or Kaw, Indian tribe in council on August 16, 1825, to negotiate permission for the trail to pass through Indian lands. The location is about five miles south of McPherson, or one and a half miles west of Elyria at Dry Turkey Creek, with a small marker close to the site."

For more information see Santa Fe Trail Organization interactive route map at http://www.santafetrail.org/interactive-trail-map/

We stopped in McPherson for a good steak dinner at Montana Mike's.

McPherson today is a prosperous town of farms, ranches and oil wells. The horizon is lit up by what looks like oil processing operations. Pipes at trackside depots fill awaiting tanker cars that will move whatever it is that the end product is to markets.

As we drive west the air smells of home heating fuel oil.