SFGT: Cimarron Overlook Traditional Geocache

This cache is located off a maintained, county gravel road.  You can pull off the road and it's an easy walk to view the DAR marker and locate the cache.  This area, surrounded by pasture and varied vegetation,is 8 miles southwest of Lower Springs (Wagon Bed Springs) and was the first source of water after leaving Lower Springs.  Trail ruts can be seen in the pasture to the west -- look for a dip in the fenceline.

This cache is part of the larger Santa Fe Trail GeoTour: santafetrail.org/geocaching Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour.  

Containers on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail Geo Tour are military ammunition canisters, or Brochure-Holder boxes, with an identifying Santa Fe Trail Association yellow sticker on the top of the box, under the handle and the dark green geocaching.com ID is on the side of the boxes with the information that provides coordinates, who set the cache and who to contact for information.  Each cache contains a logbook to sign, a variety of items that provide information about the Santa Fe Trail as well as swag items.  If you are participating in the Passport activity, the code word is located on the inside of the box, on 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.  

The river's name comes from the early Spanish name, Río de los Carneros Cimarrón, meaning River of the Wild Sheep. Early American explorers also called it the Red Fork of the Arkansas because of the water's red color, received from contact with the red clay along its banks. This route of the Santa Fe Trail is referred to as the Cimarron Route, and has sometimes been referenced as the Cimarron Cutoff, as it is a more direct route to Santa Fe than the Mountain Branch. This route crossed the Great Plains, however, it was often dry, with little or no water, poor grass, little wildlife and inhabited by Indians. It was along this route in 1831 that Comanche Indians killed famed hunter, trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith on the Santa Fe Trail near the Cimarron River – his body was never recovered. Other Santa Fe Trail Sites of interest in the area include: Wagon Bed Springs in Grant County; Point of Rocks, a Santa Fe Trail lookout for both Indians and traders; the Cimarron National Grassland in Morton and Stevens County, KS, which provides a glimpse of the prairie in its abundance of prairie wildflowers, wildlife and 23 miles of the Santa Fe Trail available to hiking, biking and horseback riding.