Santa Fe National Historic TrailPage 36 of 47
Walking the Black Jack Ruts: six stops on a prairie worn by Santa Fe Trail wagons
Five deep grooves in a prairie, cut by freight wagons, are still there to walk through. The Black Jack Ruts lie in the Ivan Boyd Memorial Prairie Preserve, on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. The National Park Service page offers a six-stop tour, as text or as audio, and this page retells the text. The trail runs through woods and over a small creek to the prairie, then on an easy gravel path past several very impressive ruts. Heavy traffic, mostly freight wagons bound for Santa Fe or returning to Westport, Franklin or merchants along the Missouri River, wore them.
The six stops
| Stop | What you see |
|---|---|
| The woods, the creek and the start of the gravel trail onto the prairie |
| Two information panels and the wide native prairie, most of which has never been plowed or cultivated. One of the main ruts runs downhill past your right into woods to the north. For the past 80 years this stretch was hidden by trees, vines and brambles; it was uncovered only recently by clearing. The wagons would have crossed Grindstone Creek north of present-day highway US 56 |
| You stand in the widest and deepest of the 5 main ruts. A sandstone layer uphill seeps water for much of the year, so the bottom is usually damp and muddy, and a rock path was built to cross it |
| The fifth main rut runs parallel on your right. It is less impressive than the others but still larger and deeper than most ruts found along the trail to Santa Fe. Native wildflowers of many species and colors bloom here in the growing season, April to October |
| A stone that may look like an authentic trail marker. No such markers were ever placed along the route; the previous owner put this one here in 1965. Looking northwest down the ruts, the ridge on the horizon is the start of "The Narrows" |
| A view of the ruts going downhill toward Grindstone Creek. At least 5 other much shallower ruts are here, visible only after the prairie is burned in spring |
The Narrows
The Narrows is a ridge that let wagons move safely between tributaries running either south to the Marais des Cygnes River or north to the Wakarusa River. It curves northwest and west for about 9 miles to Willow Springs. Beyond that the prairie flattens into a broad plain stretching to points farther west such as Council Grove.
Sources
- National Park Service, Black Jack Ruts Audio Tour, Santa Fe National Historic Trail; pictures credited to others left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.