Hale, Kansas, and the Cherokee Trail

[W. Gray]

In another follow on to the town of Hale discussion posted in the Coffee Shop, What Are You Doing for Excitement Today, here is some more mention of Hale.

Andy Taylor had an article in the Prairie Star of April 13, which mentions a Cherokee Trail campsite at Rabbit Creek near the future village settlement of Hale in northeast Chautauqua County.

The 1870 surveyors of southern Howard County (Chautauqua County) noted seeing wagon ruts and cattle trails going from southeast to northwest near what would become Hale. From the future Hale the trail ran to another campsite northwest of the future Moline on Mound Branch, and then further northwest ultimately ending in Wyoming. Along the way, it cut through and, in some cases followed, the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails.

The National Park Service is interested in making the Cherokee Trail, and 63 other old trails, a National Historic Trail.

The 1,500 mile Cherokee Trail ran beginning in 1830 from present day Oklahoma north into Kansas and then west into Colorado and north into Wyoming.

The National Park Service was in Denver yesterday gauging the local interest in the trail.