Old Military Road of 1887 DAR Marker -- Pittsburg, KS, USA
N 37° 20.307 W 094° 42.301
15S E 348963 N 4133782
A DAR granite post marking the intersection of an old KS state highway with the Old Military Road was dedicated in 1935 and moved to the modern junction of KS 171 & US 69 in 2011.
Waymark Code: WM180K4
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 05/04/2023
Views: 1
The Old Military Road was created by the US Government in 1837 to provide a line of defense along the country's western border and protect settlers.
This probably spurred the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the Old Military Raod with granite markers.
In 1935 the Daughters of the American Reviolution (DAR) dedicated a granite monument with a plaque and bas-relief map of the Old Military Road near Kniveton, pretty close to the centennial of the estatblishment of the Old Military Road. The location was chosen because then new KS State Highway 57 intersected the Old Military Road there.
75 years later the alignments of the old highways had changed and many had been renumbered. Time had bypassed towns like Kniveton, which faded into oblivion. In 2011 the old DAR Military Road marker near Kniveton was moved a few miles east to the intersection of SH 171 (old KS 57) and the US 69. It is in a small right-of-way area on the south side of the junction, near the Conoco gas station. The marker can actually be seen and visited now.
From the Kansas Historical Quarterly Aug 1935: (
visit link)
334 THE KANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"A granite marker, locating the intersection of the old Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott-Fort Gibson military road with Kansas highway No. 57 at Kniveton was dedicated June 19, 1935. The bronze tablet on the shaft bears the inscription: "This Tablet Marks the Intersection of the Old Military Road of 1837 With the New State Highway No. 57. Erected by Oceanic Hopkins Chapter of the D. A. R., Pittsburg, Kan., 1935." Mrs. Loren E. Rex, of Wichita, state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, delivered the dedicatory address. Mrs. 0. P. Dellinger, of Pittsburg, made the presentation to the state and F. W. Brinkerhoff, of Pittsburg, chairman of the committee on marking and mapping historic sites in Kansas, created by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, gave the acceptance talk. Mrs. D. L. Dunn, of Pittsburg, supervised the unveiling. The highway department was represented by Earle C. Todd, of Independence, commissioner for the fourth district. The marker is on the north side of the road, a short distance east of the railroad tracks at Kniveton."
A small plaque at the base of the marker was added in 2011. It reads:
"RELOCATED
2011
JCT US 69 at KS 171
Daughters of the American Revolution
Oceanus Hopkins Chapter"