Wayne C. Lee (1917–2010)

As Denver expands we need more Park-N-Rides, and land acquisition for those requires at least a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. A Phase I ESA is just records review and a site visit; no environmental drilling or sampling (that’s a Phase II). For a piece of land that was agricultural until the 1980s, there’s no particular reason to get very deep into site history; however, you go through the motions. In this case, surprisingly, the motions turned up something interesting; a historic trails map showed my site on the Smoky Hill Trail. (It shouldn’t have been that surprising in retrospect, because the adjacent highway was Smoky Hill Road).

Examination of the oldest aerial photographs available - from 1937 - showed very faint traces just north of the road (back then, a gravel county road; now under the modern asphalt highway). They looked enough like wagon ruts for me to talk myself into believing that they were. So perhaps it would be prudent to investigate further - not, strictly speaking, a normal part of an environmental site assessment, but close enough.

There turned out to be a book on the Smoky Hill Trail and it was relatively cheap and available on the used book market, so I picked one up. Nothing about my particular site, but still interesting. The Smoky Hill Trail was the most direct route from the railhead at Independence, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado territory during the silver rush of 1859 - almost 120 miles shorter than the more familiar Platte River Road. It was “boosted” by Kansas; a number of enthusiastic would-be silver barons set out, only to find out the drawbacks the hard way. For one thing, the Platte River Road had been in use since the Oregon Trail days, the route was well marked, and various military garrisons, trading posts and even small settlements had sprung up along the way. The Smoky Hill Trail lacked any of these. Secondly, the natives of the Platte River Road area had become more or less accustomed to people passing through; the Cheyenne and Arapahoe who lived along the Smoky Hill Trail reacted to outsiders crossing their land with extreme prejudice.

Some of the early travelers got lost and wandered around western Kansas and eastern Colorado until the “120 miles shorter” claim became a bitter mockery; at least one group lost all but one of its members to cannibalism. (The survivor said the others had told him it was OK to eat them after they died; I’d say that, too. I also note that while we are sometime delayed by traffic conditions and inclement weather, we have not yet lost a single bus passenger to cannibalism. At least, not while I was working; now that I’ve retired who knows what goes on.)

This book was written pre-political correctness; therefore the actions of the natives are described as “massacres” while the responses of the US military and settler militia are “military campaigns”. It is quite clear that both sides enthusiastically murdered, raped, tortured, scalped and plundered. Despite numerous TV shows to the contrary, the natives never attacked a full-fledged wagon train; however, the Butterfield Overland Dispatch stations and coaches attracted Cheyenne raiders the same way trailer parks attract tornadoes, with a similarly unpleasant aftermath. Although there were a few desultory attempts on railroad stations and trains after the Kansas Pacific made it through in 1870, the iron horse generally put an end to hostilities.


That was not quite the end to excitement in the area, as Texas cattlemen found that there was a market for their beef in the east if they could get it to the railheads. This brought prominence to Abilene, Ellsworth, and Dodge City and colorful characters like John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Shanghai Pierce and William Cody, none of whom realized that their lives would eventually become fodder for 1930s movies and 1950s westerns. If they had known, they would have shaved more often. I found the trivia that Buffalo Bill named his 0.50 caliber buffalo gun “Lucrezia Borgia” an interesting example of Renaissance consciousness in the Wild West.

None of this had anything to do with environmental conditions at the Park-N-Ride site, but it’s moving and inspirational to get this close to a piece of genuine western American history and pave it over with 12" transportation grade reinforced concrete.… (altro)