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One of the accounts I have read about the Creek leader:

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v009/v009p439.html

This account names him as Chief of the Upper Creeks, others refer to him as a leader or a speaker for the Creek, but say he was not an actual Chief.  Regardless, he was the leader of Creeks loyal to the Union in the early part of the Civil War, the Creek nation being divided, just as the Cherokees were, along political lines dating back prior to their removal from Georgia, Alabama and surrounding areas.

This account has a map showing his route to Kansas being up Hominy Creek then over the divide to near where the Walnut empties into the Arkansas (present Arkansas City) then east and north across southeast Cowley, central Chautauqua, and into Montgomery County before (presumedly) reaching the Verdigris and proceeding up it and/or Fall River to arrive at Fort Row/Coyville.

Fredonia's LASR site says "They followed the Verdigris and Fall Rivers into northern Wilson County to Fort Row (Roe) near Coyville." and states that "US 75 is officially designated the trail by Kansas Legislature" with historical markers at Caney and New Strawn. 

Other accounts I have read say Opothleyahola crossed Bird Creek and followed its north bank to its headwaters (west of Pawhuska), stuck north and then arrived at Fort Row approximately three weeks later, with no mention of where they went in between.

Another open question:

Does anyone know anything about the Lt. Col. Morrison whose route through present MG, CQ, EK, and BU counties is drawn and labeled on the 1867 map referenced in reply 36 and linked below:

http://contentdm.baylor.edu/19wor/19wor_atlas_v2_119_01/

I can't find anything about him or his travels on the web.

Anyone?

Marcia,

In your research of the area and conversations with residents has the story of Opothleyahola's flight to the north with his loyal (Union) Creek Indians (and other refugees) come up, with or without reference to Artillery Mound?  Fleeing from their defeat near Skiatook on Dec 26, 1861 they traveled to Fort Row near present day Coyville, with the first groups (numbering around 2,000) beginning to arrive the middle of January, 1862.  Eventually from eight to ten thousand loyal refrugees would arrive in the area.

Little has been written about the route taken (that is available online anyway) but I wonder if they may have traveled through the area we have been discussing then north and east across Chautauqua, and possibly a portion of Elk, counties on their way to northern Wilson County.

Your thoughts?

Sorry.

My thoughts on nuclear power are very hard to explain, and I told myself I wasn't getting into the Politics section and yet here I am!

Very short answer - I am hesitantly pro-nuclear.

The key to utilizing wind and solar is in finding a way to make the electricity from them "base load".  Currently, just creating electricity from these two sources doesn't provide a stable, continuous flow of energy onto the grid.  Any wind or solar generation added to the grid has to be backed up somewhere on the grid by another source, usually gas turbine, that can come online quickly when the wind dies down, or the skies turn cloudy.

What's needed is a way to "store" the electricity generated by wind and solar to where it can be placed on the grid in a controlled, constant manner.  There are multiple ways to do this, but none that are really cost effective, yet.  One that is utilized is using wind energy to pump water uphill into reservoirs, then releasing the water through hydro-electric generators during peak load times.  This is done some in the western states where topography and economics make it feasible at times.

Other ways would be to use the wind and solar electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then use the hydrogen in place of natural gas turbine generation.  Or you could store the electricity in batteries, but the right kind (read cost-effective) of battery has yet to be developed.

However it is eventually done, wind and solar will become a larger part of our mix of energy sources, but keep in mind that we are currently using natural gas to back them up.

[But what about the other 200+ people that rely on that one American Farmer for their food!]

I promised myself to stay out of this, but I just can't.  If organizations as far apart ideologically as the Environmental Working Group and the Heritage Foundation can both find ways to bash farm subsidies . . . well then I guess they must be bad!

But let me lay something out here that very few people think about and even fewer grasp.

How many businesses sell a product that they actually "grow"?  Most businesses sell a product that someone else made, or that they extracted directly from the Earth. 

Farmers "extract" plants from the Earth.  Now, most of the time they could probably grow enough to keep their family fed without any inputs other than what Mother Nature provides. 

But what about the other 200+ people that rely on that one American Farmer for their food! 

To produce enough food to feed the nation, a farmer needs inputs that are not provided by Mother Nature:  fertilizer, hybrid seed, pesticides, mechanized labor.  And to get the crop to the consumer there is needed transportation and processing requiring more energy and labor inputs.

It has often been said that farmers are the only business that buys retail and sells wholesale.  For the most part that is true.  Farmers pay retail for fuel, fertilizer, equipment, seed, chemicals, etc.  And by and large they receive first level wholesale prices for their "commodity" output.

And to do all this, the farmer is 100% at the mercy of the weather and a myriad of factors beyond their control that affect both the price they pay for their inputs, and the price they receive for their outputs.

How many of you would like to commit all of you and your family's personal assets to start, or stay in a business as risky as farming?  How many would if the government gave you a small safety-net to help even out the highs and lows in profitability, knowing that even with the government payments in 2-3 years out of every decade you will not have enough to cover all of your costs?   
Many studies were done in the late 90's-early 00's showing that without governmental assistance, farming would have only been profitable 2 out of 7 years during the mid 90's.  If you care to dig into the numbers the Environmental Working Group so conveniently agglomerated for you (so they seem to be bigger than they actually are)  you'll see that the payouts in direct payments vary from year to year, matching the ups and downs in profitability.   

I could go on, but I know that for most of you this will just go in one ear and out the other.  For those I have a final thought from a bumper sticker that was on many grain trucks and pickups in Elk County twenty years ago –

"If You Complain About Farmers, Don't Do It With Your Mouth Full"

Love the maps Waldo and John!  Do you have source citations for them, I'm curious of their origin.  Both show the Cherokee Trail (labeled California Trail from Fayetteville) about where the Fletchers have it in their book on the subject.

First time I've seen the trail labeled "Texas Trail to Cottonwood Falls" and first time I've seen Washington Irvings' route going through Chautauqua County, though I had always thought it might have.

Here's a map with K-11, also has K-36 which I had not seen before as a predecessor to present US 160.  Note US 160 along present US 166 from Baxter Springs to at least Coffeyville, maybe Caney.

http://historicalroadmaps.com/KansasPage/1926ClasonsKansasPage/image1.html

I'm glad someone moved this out of the Coffee Shop and into Politics - it keeps me from having to jump in and refute several statements made here that are fictions perpertrated by various politically motivated organizations.

If you enjoyed your food this morning, perhaps you should thank your farming and/or ranching neighbor!

"I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's cares" - George Washington