Mormon Springs Marker in Washington County, Kansas.
Mormon Springs on Ash Creek in Washington County, Kansas, was a favorite camping ground of the Latter-Day Saints when they traveled to Utah on the South Fork of the Mormon Trail, which was also the path of the Fort Riley-Fort Kearney Military Road.
This southern route of the Mormon Trail followed the Santa Fe Trail from Westport, Missouri, to 110 Mile Creek near present-day Scranton, Kansas, then northwest to Fort Riley and north to the Oregon Trail.
Mormons and other travelers camped at the spring at the base of a high red sandstone rock on Ash Creek, about half a mile west of this location. In 1845, when several Mormons passed through the county on their way to their new home in Utah, they carved their names and the date of their visit on the red sandstone rock.
From Mormon Springs, the Mormon Trail turned to cross Mill Creek, about eight miles west of Washington, Kansas. It then followed Bowman Creek to the Nebraska Border, joining the Oregon Trail near Hebron, Nebraska. The Military Road and the Mormon Trail, the main arteries of settlements and commerce in territorial Kansas, were the first routes to link the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails.
Mormon Wagon Train.
The Mormons’ road could be traced through the county for many years afterward. It was especially plain northwest of the Little Blue River near the Nebraska state line. Until the spring of 1854, traders, missionaries, and Indian agents were practically the only white men in this portion of Kansas.
Unfortunately, the inscriptions on the rock have been lost through erosion and vandals. By the 1930s, all that remained was a carving of a wagon wheel.
The spring still runs today, but it is on private property and is inaccessible to the public. However, a historical marker and four information signs describe the springs and their history at this location.
Mormon Springs was three miles south of Washington.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, November 2024.
Also See:
Washington County Photo Gallery
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Cutler, William G; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Waymarking