Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine Feb 2021 Vol 6 Issue 1

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

Alexander informed. One served as a hotel,

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was Camp Fremont, now home of the Morris County Fairgrounds, with county highway department headquarters nearby. Established in 1933, CCC’s mission was to provide work and educational opportunities to the vast number of unemployed young men. Sibley also named the creek into which Diamond Spring flows as “Otter Creek,” which has since been known as “Diamond Creek.” In the Flint Hills’ bottomlands along Diamond Creek, ranchers produce feedstuffs for wintering livestock. William Becknell is recognized as “Father of the Santa Fe Trail” thus being credited for its origin. Several Indian paths were combined creating a trail of commerce between the United States and Santa Fe, New Mexico. That city and province were then governed by Mexico. “Diamond Spring campsite was considered a significant rendezvous point for westbound wagon trains,” according to historical writer Kathy Weiser- Alexander. A mail station was established at Diamond Springs by Waldo, Hall & Company in 1849. David Waldo, Jacob Hall, and William McCoy were partners in the business. “The impressive station complex was comprised of two large stone buildings,” Weiser-

with wildfire left exhaustion and scars on nearly all.” Still, pioneers continued to come such the Diamond Springs Post Office opened in July 1859 with Postmaster George C. Newberry. During the Civil War, on May 4, 1863, the Diamond Springs Stage Station was robbed and destroyed by Confederate bushwhackers. Their leader was Dick Yeager, who rode with William C. Quantrill, including the raid on Lawrence August 21, 1863. Storekeeper Augustus Howell was killed and his wife severely wounded. Never rebuilt, the station was moved to Six Mile Creek, six miles from Diamond Springs. Santa Fe Trail traffic through Diamond Springs stopped after the Union Pacific Railway, re-named the Kansas Pacific,

restaurant and saloon while the other was a warehouse and store. There was also a blacksmith shop and spacious livestock corrals U.S. Dragoons, horse mounted infantry, were encamped close by in 1852 when Indians nearly destroyed their camp. Sergeant Percival G. Lowe was a member of the unit. He recalled: “Returning from a trip to the forts along the border, we had seen little bands of Kaw Indians. They had no love for our troop even though we didn’t think they’d attack. “We had finished supper when fire broke out around us roaring furiously flames from tall prairie grass leaping 20-feet high. Every man used a gunny sack or saddle blanket working with desperate energy. Success was ours, but the 15-minute battle

Ruins of a stone building from the mid-1800s remain in the ghost town Diamond Springs. (Kathy Weiser-Alexander photo)

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