Day 3 The Prairie


La Junta is so named because it lies at the junction of The Old Spanish Trail, The Taos Trail, and The Santa Fe Trail (mountain route), on the Arkansas River. It is definitely a railroad town, the entire section of downtown which follows Route 50 consists of rail yards, grain elevators and a mill. It is larger and busier than any of the previous towns this side of the divide, with the exception of Pueblo. It contains an assortment of chain motels, stores and restaurants. The pattern that emerges is that one town out of every three or four has all the services and enjoys all the growth while the others wither away.



From here, Route 50 follows the mountain route of The Santa Fe Trail heading east. This is the earliest route used by travelers from the east who aimed for Bent's Fort, then headed southwest to Raton Pass on their way to Santa Fe. Later on, a more southerly trail was developed that cut across a dry stretch to meet and follow the Cimarron River. This second route was possible only after the Mexican War of 1846-47 since the border between U.S. territory and Mexico was the Arkansas River. Before 1846, most of the traffic on the mountain route consisted of Mexicans coming north to trade at Bent's Fort which was on the left bank (north) of the Arkansas, only a few miles from today's La Junta. The few American traders who braved the trip all the way to Santa Fe were often treated as spies by the Mexican authorities and could be imprisoned and have their goods confiscated.

Bent's Fort is about six miles east of La Junta and is nicely restored with both guided and self-guided tours.

Charles and William Bent became partners with Ceran St Vrain in 1833 and built this adobe fort as a trading post for the beaver trade. They soon shifted to buying and selling buffalo hides most of which were supplied by neighboring Cheyenne Indians,



Today, the neighbors are small farmers, growing irrigated alfalfa. The next permanent settlement in the area was Boggsville, a few mile away. Boggsville was also the last home of guide and mountain man Kit Carson.


the settlers of Boggsville began raising cattle right after the Civil War and were successful thanks to high beef prices during the 1870's and 80's.



The economy in this area is mostly small ranches with the land divided between grazing on untilled prairie ground and alfalfa cultivation on leveled, irrigated plots. The ranchers use flood irrigation and now, in early May, they are just laying out their gate pipe.

Traveling east, the next town on Route 50 is Las Animas. This is the county seat of Bent County and has a beautifully preserved court house. 



Unfortunately it also has an abandoned railroad depot and no new businesses which makes the people dependent on La Junta.


In so much of the U.S., rail freight has been replaced by trucking but along the Santa Fe Trail this is much less in evidence. All the towns along Route 50 are served by the BNSF Railroad and all have grain elevators. This is the old Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Line and it is in heavy use today. Both the highway and the rail line follow the Arkansas River in the same way that wagon freight did in before the rails were completed in 1873.


This is my route across Kansas. The dot northwest of Emporia is Council Grove. Map courtesy of d-maps.com.


Although the Arkansas River originates in the Rockies and empties into the Mississippi, it is far from a raging torrent as it moves through Kansas. On the contrary, it is sluggish in its wide meandering bed and appears to be mainly a succession of grassy sand bars and muddy pools. One reason for this is the amount of water that is taken off for irrigation but it is also a characteristic of prairie rivers. Like its northern neighbors the Platte and the Powder, the Arkansas is too thick to drink and too thin to plow.




Continuing east the scene along the highway gradually shifts from intermittent wheat fields to almost continuous fields of green irrigated by huge pivots of up to ten contiguous units. These are mechanized self-propelled sprinkler systems that rotate through the fields on wheels. There is also industry. I passed a Koch fertilizer plant and another facility that produces liquid hydrocarbons. I don't know if this was for fuel, fertilizer, or both. Both plants were served by railroad tank cars.



 In McPherson there is a factory that produces wind turbines. These are widely used in Kansas
as well as being produced there.


There are four busy cities along this route through Kansas: Garden City, Dodge City, Great Bend, and McPherson. these are the business centers for the many small towns that dot the landscape. They are also centers for casino gambling and the highway is littered with billboards advertising gaming. Personally, what I like about this area is the beauty of the sky and prairie with their constantly threatening storms and sheer vastness.












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