Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour. The Lone Elm campground is 3 miles south of Olathe on Lone Elm Road, on the main branch of the Santa Fe Trail from Independence. There was a spring here (now enclosed in a small well) and excellent grazing for livestock. Originally known as Round Grove or Elm Grove because of a grove of trees, the campground was a major campsite for travelers, who eventually cut down all the trees for firewood, except for one, resulting in its name "Lone Elm." The last tree was also finally cut down, but the name endured. Another campground, known as Elm Grove, is located about 2 miles northwest of here on the same Cedar Creek, and they are often mistaken for each other.
Along with traders and emigrants who used Lone Elm on their first or second night out from Westport or Independence, the Mexican War in 1846 brought the frontier military through Lone Elm. Several soldiers who succumbed to cholera are buried here, as well as '49ers who died of the same disease. The famous ill-fated Donner Party camped here. This site was often noted by those traveling the Trail and keeping a diary or journal. Susan Shelby Magoffin described the area in her diary entry of June 11, 1846. As they had traveled until just before sundown and were preparing to make camp, she described it as, "There is no other tree or bush or shrub save one Elm tree, which stands on a small elevation near the little creek or branch. The travellers always stop where there is water sufficient for all their animals. The grass is fine every place, it is so tall in some places as to conceal a man's waist." W. H. Davis said of the place in 1853 on his trip down the Santa Fe Trail, “Travelers came to look upon it [the Lone Elm] as an old friend. . .but in the course of time some modern vandal came along, and laid low this last of its race; and when we passed, it was all gone but a small portion of its stump, and part of that cooked our breakfast.”
Newton Ainsworth was the first owner of this property in post-trail days, developing a successful farm here. He was a tireless advocate of Lone Elm and its location on his farm. He also was instrumental in the placement of the Daughters of the American Revolution Santa Fe Trail marker in 1906. This marker is still located on the same spot today, on the northwest corner of Lone Elm Park.