Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour. This container on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail Geo Tour is a large Bison canister The container is camouflaged to help hide it from plain view. Each cache contains a logbook to sign, and a few swag items. If you are participating in the Passport activity, the code word is located on the inside of the container -- look at the lid, and it is clearly identified as Code Word. Permission to set caches has been obtained from the Kansas Department of Transportation, Great Bend office, who is in charge of this park. Their phone number is 620-793-5408 should you need to contact them. There is a Kansas Historical Marker in the park that provides information about this historic area. We ask that all cachers please respect all property at the sites where our caches are set.
Located near the site of Fort Zarah Park were several significant Santa Fe Trail sites. The Walnut Creek crossing included a trading ranch, toll bridge, and military post. When the creek flooded, wagon trains would camp on its banks for a few days, waiting to cross. It was one of the first streams in the region to have a toll bridge.
Small trading posts were located about 2 miles east of Great Bend, Kansas, and south of US Highway 56, near the Walnut Creek crossing. William Allison and Francis Booth(e), formerly conductors for Waldo, Hall and Company on the Santa Fe mail run, opened a post on the north side of the trail and east of the Walnut crossing in 1855, in the heart of Plains Indian lands. They established trade with the Plains tribes and also sold supplies to trail travelers. Booth was killed by a disgruntled employee in 1857, and Allison died in 1859 at Independence, Missouri, while on a trip to purchase supplies. George Peacock apparently acquired the trading rights from Allison's estate, and thereafter evidently constructed a new stone building as a trading post. Peacock was killed by the Kiowa war chief Satank in 1860, and the trading rights then went to Charles Rath. Rath operated the ranch until 1867, when the army ordered him out for selling arms, ammunition, and whiskey to the Indians. The Indians burned the post a few months later, and today only the foundations remain and is located on private property (no access).
The first Fort Zarah was established in 1864 to help protect mail service on the Santa Fe Trail. The fort was about 200 yards west of the trading ranch on the east side of Walnut Creek and north of the crossing toll bridge. This was also at or near the point where the Fort Harker-Fort Riley military road met the Santa Fe Trail. The mail station and corrals were on the south side of Walnut Creek, across the creek from the fort.
The second Fort Zarah site was located about 0.5 mile east of the roadside park. This second fort was built in 1867, about 0.5 mile north of the first one. This was a more permanent post, comprised of a large stone building with quarters for officers and troops, kitchens and mess halls, storerooms, and other functions. This post was abandoned in 1869, when it was felt that the Indian threat was not sufficient to warrant a second post so close to Fort Larned.