Eudora Community Heritage of Our USA Bicentennial, 1776-1976
History Committee, Eudora Becentennial Committee, 1977

EUDORA WAS ON THE OREGON TRAIL

Perhaps the most significant history the Eudora Bicentennial History Committee has uncovered is the fact that Eudora was on the OREGON TRAIL! The Trail originated in Independence, Mo., near Kansas City, where the migration of the homesteaders to Oregon started in 1843 with hundreds of men, women and children plus dogs, cattle, horses, oxen and wagons traveling westward through Kansas. Near Gardner in Johnson County, the Oregon and Santa Fe trails divided and the north trail led to Oregon, going through Douglas County, Indian Territory then, from southeast to northwest.

To the southeast the Rodewald farm has signs of trails and camping; the Junior Neis farm had ruts visible. The Trail may have gone through Prairie Center at times, but there are many trails as the route changed with the weather, whether the ground was dry or muddy and whether the rivers and creeks were high from recent rains, because they had to be forded, as there were no bridges in early days. The Trail went west past the little town of Hesper where supplies could be obtained in later years, then into the Indian land of Pascal Fish and other Shawnees.

The Oregon Trail apparently joined the Fremont-Westport Trail at a point which is now about 17th and Elm Street which is at the south Eudora City limits and where Pascal fish had his hotel, The Fish House, built in 1854. He later sold the Eudora area to the German Settlement Society in 1857. The deed to the former Francis Skinner property went back to the hotel of Pascal Fish, which was back in their pasture. The foundation was still there when they bought the property.

Remnants of an old store and blacksmith are also near here. The trails merged here going west to the little settlement of Franklin, then to Lawrence, Topeka and into Nebraska.

At a point about a quarter mile west of Eudora city limits are visible imprints of the Trail, still dimly seen as it wound westward. A mile west of the city there are many signs of wear where the heavy Conestoga and prairie wagons cut ruts into the soil. Then the road forks a mile west of the Jewish cemetery, 2 miles southwest of Eudora, as they sought the Bluejacket crossing on land of the Bluejacket family, near where the Little Wakarusa joins the main Wakarusa river. There were two crossings here and a small settlement of Sebastian was platted on the 1857 Territorial map but never materialized as such, only a store and blacksmith shop, so old timers tell.

At Bluejacket Ford was an earthworks fort on the left bank of the river. It might have been used for the pro-slavery Bands which the 1847 map shows were camped near here. This area was the hot seat of pro- and anti-slavery forces and Eudora was lucky to have escaped involvement, which nearby towns did not.
The first crossing was where the streams joined and the second was about a quarter of a mile north of this (or 200 yards south of the new #10 highway bridges) at the north end of a sandstone ledge. There are many names carved on these rocks and the gravestone of a one and a half year old baby girl.

to be continued . .

Under Other Flags / Indian Lands / Oregon Trail / Mission / Becomes a City / Sad Years / Railroads / Business / Education
Published by West Junior High, NEH project, with permission; Eudora Community Heritage, History Committee, Eudora Bicentennial Commission, 1977.