Folks that have a mental image of Kansas being a peaceful place with that "down home" perennial agrarian culture need to read this:
http://www.kansas.com/news/article1121436.html
Makes the Bates Motel seem tame....
The casket containing the body of a little girl buried in 1876 was found in San Francisco:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/09/mystery-solved-19th-century-girl-in-casket-found-under-san-francisco-house-identified/
The Osage Trail, as they call it, was a very busy thoroughfare in those days of few local citizens and nearly all of them having arrived within the previous eight years or less. It was so-named for the Osage Tribe that had once dominated the area but were moving westward and southward in 1873. The land where the Benders operated was part of the roughly 1250 square miles involved in the treaty signed in September 1865 between the Osages and the US Government. at what was known as Canville's Trading Post about 25 miles to the northeast. The earliest community in that corner of Kansas was Fort Scott, founded in 1842. Next was Osage Mission (now St. Paul) in 1847 as it was set up to be a mission to the Osage and provide schooling for their children. The two headquarters for Government business and filing of land patents were in Humboldt and Independence. Many coming from the East passed through Fort Scott on their way to either Humboldt ( somewhat straight west) or to Independence via Osage Mission (much further to the southwest). Father Ponziglione from Osage Mission traveled the route frequently as he established new missions throughout the region (67 or so according to Google). He had a close encounter at the Bender site when his intuition told him to move on quickly, shortly prior to the exposing of their viciousness. Part of the problem with reliable information about the departure of the Benders is due to a number of death bed confessions by various old time locals who claimed to have been involved in the capture and execution of the Benders. But, the stories were all quite different. Also, as this was a sparsely settled area at the time, there were relatively few locals to hold on to the stories and many of them moved on to different parts of the country.
The green areas a bit to the southwest of the highway identifier (400) are known as Bender Mounds but the actual location of the Benders was more like a mile or more north-northeasterly near a couple smaller mounds. These mounds are rather easy to spot.
Roughly 8 or 10 miles to the southeast of the Bender Mounds is a small town, Mound Valley. At first I thought Paden was referring to the big shootout there last weekend between some county deputies and a citizen of Mound Valley who had shot his neighbor a bit earlier in the day. The neighbor was out of the hospital later the same day but the shooter may still be there as the deputies were better shots.
BTW, I will be driving on that stretch of US 400 tomorrow on my way to Coffeyville, home of the silly Dalton Gang and their misguided attempt to rob two banks at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Gang
Warning: dead people below
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Holy Cow, post: 427737, member: 50 wrote: ..The green areas a bit to the southwest of the highway identifier (400) are known as Bender Mounds but the actual location of the Benders was more like a mile or more north-northeasterly near a couple smaller mounds. These mounds are rather easy to spot..
Near as I could pinpoint the Bender's place was an interweb mention of the historical marker 3 1/2 miles west at the 400/169 jct. rest area. I figgered your recollections would be a bit more precise.
btw - what do you think happened to the Dalton boys' boots?
Souvenirs.
Bunch of the local citizens ended up doing some trophy hunting that day as they were directly involved in the shootout with the Dalton Gang. A visit to the Dalton Gang Museum in Coffeyville also provides a ton of information on oldtime baseball pitcher Walter Johnson who was a resident of the big city.
Prior to the existence of US 400 there was a rest area on what is 24000 Road now (was US 160 before) roughly a half mile south of the location of 400 at the intersection just to the northeast of Bender Mounds. The sign there mentioned the site being roughly a mile further north.
