Pawnee Rock, one of the most famous and beautiful landmarks on the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, ...

, is located in Pawnee Rock State Park, just north of

Pawnee Rock, Kansas Pawnee Rock is a city in Barton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 193. History Pawnee Rock was founded in 1874. It was named from the historic landmark Pawnee Rock nearby. Pawnee Rock was inc ...

, United States. Originally over tall, railroad construction stripped it of some 15 to in height for road bed material. A memorial monument, picnic area, and pergola have been constructed on the top. From the top of the pergola is a view the

Arkansas river The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United ...

valley and the route of the Santa Fe trail. Today it is a prominence rising above the surrounding plains. Matt Field, who traveled the Santa Fe Trail in 1840, later wrote, "''Pawnee Rock springs like a huge wart from the carpeted green of the prairie."''Pankratz, Richard D. Pawnee Rock, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form; National Park Service; Washington D.C.; December 7, 1970 pgs 7 Traders, soldiers, and emigrants who stopped, carved their names into the brown

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

. Some of these names are still visible among the graffiti of the more recent visitors. Pawnee Rock was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

around 1970. The site is administrated by the

Kansas Historical Society The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas. Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...

as the Pawnee Rock State Historic Site.

History

Pawnee Rock was long a meeting place of the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians. Numerous battles were fought at Pawnee Rock between the tribes, and as a result, many bones have been found in the soil in the vicinity. Pawnee Rock was for many years a place where

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

, and Pawnee tribes held their councils of war and peace. Many Indian battles were fought nearby in the days before the white men came to Kansas. It served as a lookout for travelers on the

, as well as a rendezvous and ambush for the Indians. As a camping spot it afforded some protection against hostile Indians. Many travelers and traders on the Santa Fe trail considered Pawnee Rock the most dangerous place on the Central Plains for encounters with the Indians. Many of the Plains tribes reportedly used it as an observation point from which they could track and swoop down upon buffalo herds and wagon trains. It was also a landmark for travelers, marking the half waypoint between Missouri and Santa Fe. In 1848, James Birch, a soldier on his way to the Mexican War, wrote: "Pawnee Rock was covered with names carved by the men who had passed it. It was so full that I could find no place for mine." .https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/pawnee-rock/11905 ; Kansapedia; Pawnee Rock; Kansas Historical Society; December 1969; August 2013(downloaded September 16, 2015) Pawnee Rock P5310475

Much of Pawnee Rock was destroyed in the 1870s by the railroad and by settlers for building stone. The remnant was acquired in 1908 by the Woman's Kansas Day Club. In 1909, was given to the State of Kansas as an historic site. On May 24, 1912, a stone monument was dedicated with great celebration before a crowd of some 8,000 onlookers. Pawnee Rock was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and today operates as Pawnee Rock State Historic Site.Arnold, Anna E.; A History of Kansas; The State of Kansas, State Printing Plant; Topeka; 1914

Naming Pawnee Rock

Many stories have been told to explain how Pawnee Rock got its name. One source for the name comes from the belief that was sacred ground for the Pawnee Indians who held tribal councils on its flat top. Another from a great battle in which a small band of Pawnees were destroyed by a force of

Kiowas Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

Cheyennes The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enrolle ...

, and

Arapahos The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ban ...

. Both come from Pawnee lore. Among the plainsmen it is said that the Rock got its name in 1826.

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

was on his first trip west and only seventeen. He was working his passage on a wagon train which near the Rock. While on guard duty, he shot his own mule, thinking it was an attacking Pawnee. His associates commemorated his experience with the name, Pawnee Rock.

Bibliography

* ''Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas''; Tribune Publishing Co.; Great Bend, Kansas; 1912 p 145 * Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas, A cyclopedia of State History, V. 2; Chicago Standard Publishing Col; 1912; pp 455–457 * Porter, Clyde & Mae Reed and John E. Sunder; Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail; University of Oklahoma Press; Norman, Oklahoma; 1960 * Survey of Historic Sites and Structures in Kansas; Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1957
''Echoes of Pawnee Rock''
compiled by Margaret Perkins (Wichita, KS, 1908)

References

External links

{{Commons category, Pawnee Rock State Park
Pawnee Rock
Kansas State Historical Society.
Santa Fe Trail Research
Protected areas of Barton County, Kansas Santa Fe Trail Geography of Kansas Kansas state historic sites Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Barton County, Kansas