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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
2003-12-01 10:58:00
Day trips in Kansas
: 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 Kansas... just an easy drive away. Kaw Mission-Council GroveVisit the historic stone mission where 30 Kaw (or Kansa) Indian boys lived and studied from 1851 - 1854. The U.S. Government removed the Kaws to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, in 1873. The Kaws, known as "The People of the South Wind," gave our state its name. You can view exhibits that feature the history and culture of the Kaws and the Santa Fe Trail that passed nearby.   When the Santa Fe Trail was the great highway between the Missouri border, then the western limit of American settlement, and the Spanish town of Santa Fe, Council Grove was an important waypoint on the route. Situated on the Neosho River, it was a natural stopping place, well watered with abundant grass and timber.    At this grove in 1825 the U.S. commissioners negotiated with the Osage for a passage across their lands. This right-of-way, surveyed by the government in 1825-1827, became the Santa Fe Trail as it is known today, and from this council with the Osage the town took its name.   In 1846 a treaty with the Kansa or Kaw Indians gave them a diminished reservation twenty miles square that included the site of present-day Council Grove. Traders and government agents soon followed the tribe to the new location. Seth M. Hays, the first white settler at Council Grove, established his home and trading post in 1847 just west of the Neosho River on the north side of the Santa Fe Trail.   The treaty of 1846 had provided that the government would make an annual payment of $1000 to advance the education of the Kaw Indians in their own country. In 1850 the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which had ministered to the tribe since 1830, entered into a contract with the government, and construction of the mission and school building which was completed by February 1851.   The building was of native stone, two stories high, with eight rooms, and was designed to accommodate fifty students as regular boarders, in addition to teachers, missionaries, and farmers. School began in May 1851 under the direction of Thomas Sears Huffaker, a twenty-four-year-old teacher who had served in the same capacity at the Shawnee Manual Labor School near present-day Kansas City. Classes for Indian children were held until 1854, when the school was closed because of the excessive cost, $50 a year, of maintaining each student. The Kaw Indians never responded well to the efforts of the missionaries and sent to the school only boys who were orphans or dependents of the tribe. Girls were not allowed to attend. Members of the tribe considered the ways of the white man degrading to the Indian character.   During this period the school averaged about thirty pupils a year. Instruction was given in spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The Indian boys showed facility in learning the principles of agriculture, but they received no instruction in the trades.   A treaty with the Kaw Indians in 1859 provided that the reservation be further diminished to an area nine by fourteen miles. These lands were relinquished in the 1870s, and the tribe moved to a reservation in present-day Oklahoma.   The mission building and grounds were sold to Thomas Huffaker in 1865, and he continued in possession for fourteen years. Thereafter, several individuals owned the property until 1926 when Carl I. Huffaker, a son of Thomas, bought the part on which the mission building stands.   In 1951 the Kansas legislature authorized the purchase of the mission property from Mr. Huffaker, and the Kansas State Historical Society, as trustee for the state, now operates it as a museum.    Directions: Just an easy drive on the Kansas Turnpike (I-35) North toward El Dorado/Kansas City.  Take the US-56 exit #147 toward Council Grove/Osage City.  Take a left on road 340, and continue on US-56.  This is approximately a 2 hour drive but the scenery and rolling hills are very enjoyable!
 
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