Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour. Early in 1843, a Spanish trader named Antonio Jose Chavez was murdered at this site. Historically, this stream was known as Owl Creek, however, the name of the stream now given on all maps as "Jarvis" creek, is most likely a corruption of the trader's Spanish name, Chavez, by the county's earliest settlers who found it a bit hard to pronounce.
Antonio Jose Chavez was a resident and trader of New Mexico and had been with traveling the Santa Fe Trail between the far southwest and the city of St. Louis. Chavez started out in February of 1843 with two wagons, five servants, fifty-five mules and several bales of furs as well as $12,000 in gold and silver. His destination was Independence, Missouri. The spring of 1843 was unusually cold and the weather made traveling difficult and filled with hardships for Chavez and his men. In addition, fifty of the mules died from the harsh conditions.
Dr. David Clapsaddle, noted Santa Fe Trail historian, provides the details of the murder of Antonio Jose Chavez:
“On April 10, Chavez camped at the crossing of the Little Arkansas River in what is now eastern Rice County. Here he was met by a company of 15 men under the leadership of a John McDaniel. McDaniel had organized the band on the frontier of Missouri, expecting to join a Colonel Warfield who was on the plains claiming to be a part of the forces of the Texas Republic and intending to attack trail caravans.
Chavez was apprehended by the McDaniel men and taken off the trail to be robbed of his belongings. Seven of the bandits returned immediately to Missouri with their shares of the loot while the balance remained, deciding to dispose of Chavez. They led him to Owl Creek where, according to present beliefs, they took him to a ravine which empties into that little stream, and there executed him. With the balance of the spoils they, too, returned to Missouri.
Several of the McDaniel gang were afterward arrested by Missouri authorities for implication in the crime and although some of the guilty escaped, the leader, John McDaniel, was tried and convicted at St. Louis, and put to death. During the trial evidence was produced by the prosecution showing that the wagons belonging to Chavez had been discovered in the ravine near the crossing where they had been left by the murderers.”
Sometime after the murder, relatives, or friends of the victim, coming from New Mexico erected a marker in his memory at the approximate site of the tragedy. Carved upon its face was the single word "Chavez." That marker disappeared and in 1998, at the request of landowners, Don and Lillian Swink, the Wet/Dry Routes Chapter assisted in placing a replacement marker at the Jarvis Creek Crossing in Rice County, Kansas. The Swicks have long been interested in marking this site on their property southeast of Lyons which is associated with the murder of Antonio Jose Chavez in April of 1843. A single word inscribed on a limestone post reads: "CHAVEZ"
An interesting side note to this story concerns an artifact from one of the Chavez wagons. Following the murder of Chavez, family members traveled to Missouri to recover part of the property and “treasure” which had been stolen. The artifact, a box that attached to the side of the wagon, was acquired by New Mexican historian, Alan Minge from the Chavez family. Most recently the box was acquired by David Clapsaddle and donated to the Coronado Quivira Museum in Lyons, KS, where it is on display.
In the years after 1843, Owl Creek took the name of the man who had died there. But that name, so unfamiliar to frontier folk knowing no Spanish, became hopelessly mangled, Chavis, Chauvey, Charvix, Garvis, Jarvis, and so on. But at last Jarvis was settled upon and by that name is the creek shown on all maps today.
To read more about this incident, refer to the following book by noted Southwestern Author, Marc Simmons: "MURDER ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL: An International Incident 1843".
This container on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail Geo Tour is a large Bison canister, and contains a logbook to sign, as well as a few swag items. If you are participating in the Passport activity, the code word is located on the inside of the canister, in the top of the lid and is clearly identified as Code Word. Permission to set caches has been obtained. We ask that all cachers please respect all property at the sites where our caches are set.