Wagon Bed Spring (Kansas)

Lower Cimarron Spring

View of the spring site
Nearest city Ulysses, Kansas
Coordinates 37°23′54″N 101°22′15″W / 37.39833°N 101.37083°W / 37.39833; -101.37083Coordinates: 37°23′54″N 101°22′15″W / 37.39833°N 101.37083°W / 37.39833; -101.37083
Built 1820
NRHP Reference # 66000344
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL 19 December 1960[2]

Wagon Bed Spring (also Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring), located in Grant County, Kansas, United States, was an important watering spot on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. The flow of the spring came from an outcropping of the Ogallala Formation. Center pivot irrigation adjacent to the spring resulted in lowering of the water table and the spring ceased to flow in the 1960s. A number of small artifacts dating from the days of the Santa Fe Trail have been recovered from lands near the spring which were used by both American Indians and wagon trains as a campground. The name "wagon bed" dates from later use of an old wagon bed as a trough to collect water from the spring. There is a foundation on the site of an ice house. Floods have changed the course of the Cimarron River; the site of the spring is now in the bed of the river rather than on its bank as it was in the days of the Santa Fe Trail.[3]

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.[2][4]

It is located about 12 miles (19 km) south of Ulysses, on the west side of US 270.[3]

References

  1. National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Lower Cimarron Spring". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  3. 1 2 Christine Whitacre (historian); Steven De Vore (archeologist) and Patty Henry (editor) (March 17, 1997). "LOWER CIMARRON SPRING NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION USDI/NPS" (PDF). National Park Service. p. 36. Retrieved December 13, 2012. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  4. Accompanying nine photos, site and artifacts, from 1993
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