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Ron Galliher
Ron Galliher is the certified sales manager of Midwest Toyota, located at 1100 E. 30th Ave. in Hutchinson, KS. Aside from meeting the needs of clients from all over Kansas, Ron enjoys vacationing in Florida with his family. You can reach Ron, toll-free from the Wichita area at 448-0225 or email him at rong@midwestsuperstore.com
Travel
2004-02-01 16:25:00
Pawnee Rock - an easy drive away
: Where can I day trip in Kansas?
Ron Galliher Question: Where can I day trip in Kansas?Answer: Where can you find proof that the dinosaur roamed, see and sample elderberry wine, locate the perfect fishing hole, and see bison grazing on an open prairie? Where can you discover all of this and more? Where else but Kansas? Set out on a journey and discover Pawnee Rock...just an easy drive away.   Many stories have been told to explain how Pawnee Rock got its name. One tale relates that it was sacred ground for the Pawnee Indians who held tribal councils on its flat top. Another describes a great battle in which a small band of Pawnees was destroyed by a force of Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. Both of these attribute the name to events in Pawnee lore that occurred near the Rock. A tradition among white plainsmen was that the Rock received its name in 1826 from an embarrassing mistake by Kit Carson. At seventeen, Carson was on his first trip into the West. The wagon train with which he was working camped for the night near the Rock. He was given guard duty. In the dark, he shot his own mule, thinking it was an attacking Pawnee. His unkind associates commemorated his unfortunate experience with the name, Pawnee Rock.  Whatever the source of its name, the Rock was important to both Indians and Whites. Many of the Plains tribes reportedly used it as an observation point from which they could track and swoop down upon buffalo herds and wagon trains. At times, travelers on the Santa Fe Trail regarded it as the most dangerous place they had to pass. However, it was also a welcome landmark for travelers, signaling that about half of their journey was now behind them. Hundreds stopped to write their names in the soft sandstone beside the ancient drawings that the Indians had engraved. In 1848, James Birch, a soldier on his way to the Mexican War, wrote: "Pawnee Rock was covered with names carved by the men who had passed it. It was so full that I could find no place for mine." Pawnee Rock Unfortunately, much of Pawnee Rock was destroyed in the 1870s by the railroad and by settlers who were in need of building stone. The Woman's Kansas Day Club acquired the remaining portion in1908. The next year it was turned over to the State of Kansas as a historic site. On May 24, 1912, a stone monument was dedicated with great celebration before a crowd of some eight thousand onlookers.  Just an easy driveā€¦ Catch HWY 56 at McPherson, head west to Lyons and Ellinwood and continue through Great Bend. Pawnee Rock is located between Great Bend and Larned on HWY 56 right on the Barton-Stafford county line.
 
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