Historical Kansas (West Bound) # 101
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 38° 51.438 W 098° 07.997
14S E 575201 N 4301298
Historical marker located in rest area on I-70 westbound mile 224
Waymark Code: WM1ZJB
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 08/09/2007
Views: 72
The rolling land hereabout was once sheep country, but cattle have taken
over. Stone fence posts found here are examples of the many still in use in this
portion of Kansas. In an area where wood for posts was scarce, man used
materials at hand. He split the Greenhorn "post rock" from limestone strata, and
with a little working, there were the posts!
Indians, angered by encroachments of white settlers, sometimes took bloody
vengeance. For example, in several raids in the 1860's the Cheyennes
killed or captured 17 men and women a few miles north in present Lincoln county.
Seven miles south, on K-14, is Ellsworth, another cattle town where it was
once dangerous to be alive. Several men were shot down in 1873, including
Sheriff Chauncey Whitney, August 15. His assailant was drunken Billy
Thompson, whose brother Ben afterward took over Main street and for an hour
dared the police to come and get him. Where were the constabulary?
Off loading their muskets, said the Ellsworth newspaper contemptuously.
Indeed, those were the days when the West was really wild.
Ahead are Wilson (with the Wilson reservoir five miles to the north);
Russell, an oil town; and historic Hays and Fort Hays. ~ text of marker