SCENIC BYWAYS AND HISTORIC TRAILS Discoveries off the beaten track


people in greater depth. One of the best known is the Santa Fe Trail (www.nps.gov/safe and www.santafetrail.org), the fi rst “highway” to the West, which was fi rst used by William Becknell in 1822 who used a caravan of mules to transport goods to Santa Fe (New Mexico) which at the time was still in Mexico. The route between Kansas City and Santa Fe extended over 1900km. It disappeared from the map around 1880 with the advent of the railway. Today it is possible to travel on it through Kansas starting from Kansas City, passing Council Grove, Great Bend and Dodge City; a short section also takes in the Oklahoma Panhandle.


Scenic Byways and Historic Trails offer an opportunity to get to know the landscape and the


As traders moved into the South West on the Santa Fe Trail, between 1841 and 1869, the year the transcontinental


railway was completed, innumerable settlers trekked on the Oregon/California Trail (www.nps.gov/oreg or www.nps.gov/cali) into the “Promised Land” of the West. It is also possible to trace this route starting from Kansas City, past Lawrence and Topeka and through north-eastern Kansas. The legendary Pony Express also crossed the same area in 1860/61 (www.ponyexpress.org), a courier service by horse which delivered post over a distance of 3200km between St. Joseph/Missouri or neighbouring Atchison/Kansas to Sacramento in California. The horses were changed at stops every 15 to 20 km. The couriers – of whom the most famous is alleged to be Buffalo Bill Cody – were relieved after 300km.


The Frontier Military Scenic Byway runs through eastern Kansas. From Fort Leavenworth in the North, this route extends as far as Fort Scott in the South and commemorates the bloody battles of the Civil War 1861-1865.


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Diversity of landscape and ecology is a feature of three byways in Kansas. The Flint Hills National Scenic Byway crosses the remains of the tallgrass prairie (Flint Hills) for 75 km between the quiet towns of Manhattan, Council Grove, Cottonwood Falls, and Cassoday. Parts of the tallgrass prairie form a protected nature reserve. The Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway on the other hand passes through around 125 km of the Cheyenne Bottoms and the Quvira National Wildlife Refuge, an area of important marshland and a paradise for birds. The Post Rock Scenic Byway snakes through the Smoky Hills, past Wilson Lake on sandstone cliffs and grassland in central Kansas. Although a mere 30 km long, it is exceptionally picturesque.


Running for over 160km between Scott City and Sharon Springs, the Western Vistas Historic Byway in western Kansas offers not only the Scott Lake State Park, but also the El Quarteljo Pueblo Ruins and the unique Monument Rocks formations, known as the “badlands” of Kansas. It also passes through the small township of Oakley, where Buffalo Bill Cody’s prowess as a hunter earned him his nickname.


The Chisholm Trail recalls the history of the cattle trails on which cowboys drove longhorn cattle northwards (www.thechisholmtrail.com). It runs through the middle of the Heartland between Fort Worth/Texas, Duncan/OK and Oklahoma City/OK and also Wichita/KS, Dodge City/KS, and Abilene/KS. The US highway 81 follows more or less the same route today.


The 140km Cherokee Hills Scenic Byway reveals the diversity of the landscape in eastern Oklahoma as it hugs the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Thick forests alternate with magnifi cent views, such as those over Lake Tenkiller or the Illinois River. The small town of Tahlequah provides insight into the history of the Cherokee people who live here.


Travelling along the almost 90 km Talimena National Scenic Byway in south-eastern Oklahoma it is perhaps possible to understand why this landscape reminds the Cherokees of their former homelands. The forested Kiamichi Mountains, one of the highest mountain ranges between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, are similar to the Great Smoky Mountains in the Southeast of the USA.


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