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Alcove Spring was a
familiar campsite near the Independence Crossing of the
Big Blue River. Before the great migration began it had
been used by Indians as a campsite on hunting trips.
Fremont camped near there on one occasion.
Thousands of emigrants camped near the
site while waiting to cross the river, which as often as
not was in flood stage when they reached this part of
their trip. The spring area was used as a campground by
fur traders at least as early as 1827. James Clyman
camped there while headed for St. Louis with a mule
train of furs. One of the earliest references to the
spring by emigrants came in 1843, the year of the
"Great Migration," when more than 900 people
started across the trail to Oregon. It was named by
members of the Donner-Reed party in 1846. It is the
final resting place for many emigrants, most notably
Sarah H. Keyes, the mother-in-law of James F. Reed of
that famous group of people. Sarah Keyes died, at the
age of seventy, on May 29, 1846. |
When the Donner-Reed party headed west, Mrs.
Keyes refused to remain behind, despite her advanced age.
Eliza P. Donner Houghton later remembered that, as the men
built a raft to ford the swollen Blue River, "there was
... sorrow instead of rejoicing in Camp, for Mrs. Reed's aged
mother, who bad been failing for some days, died that night.
At two o'clock the next afternoon, she was buried at the foot
of a monarch oak in a neat cottonwood coffin made by men of
the party, and her grave was marked by a headstone." The
exact location of her grave is unknown today; the marker at
the site, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution,
commemorates her death. The inscription reads "God in His
love and charity has called in this beautiful valley a pioneer
mother."
The site is well known for the
waterfall near the spring. It is called Naomi Pike
falls after the young member of the Donner-Reed party.
It's water is supplied by a wet weather spring,
therefore there is only a waterfall in the spring of
the year. By early summer it has stopped. There are
many carvings on the ledge of the waterfall and rocks
in the surrounding area. Some of the carvings are
thought to date from the emigrant era. One of these
carvings is by J. F. Reed. There is a carving of the
words Alcove Spring, thought to have been made by the
Donner-Reed party. |
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Edwin Bryant,
1846:
"This afternoon, accompanied by several
of the party, I strolled up the small branch, which I have
previously mentioned as emptying into the river just above the
ford. About three-fourths of a mile from our camp we found a
large spring of water, as cold and pure as if it had just been
melted from ice. It gushed from a ledge of rocks, which
composes the bank of the stream, and falling some ten feet,
its waters are received into a basin fifteen feet in length,
ten in breadth, and three or four in depth.
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"A shelving rock projects over
this basin , from which falls a beautiful cascade of
water, some ten or twelve feet. The whole is buried in
a variety of shrubbery of the richest verdure, and
surrounded by small mound-shaped inequalities of the
prairie. Altogether it is one of the most romantic
spots I ever saw. So charmed were we with its
beauties, that several hours unconsciously glided away
in the enjoyment of its refreshing waters and
seductive attractions. We named this Alcove Spring;
and future travellers will find the name graven on the
rocks, and on the trunks of the trees surrounding
it." |
George
McKinstry, May 30, 1846:
"About a half mile from Camp up the
spring branch on the right hand fork is a most beautiful
spring and a fall of water 12 feet. Mr. Bryant of our party
has named it the 'Alcove Spring' ...I this day cut the name of
the spring in the rock on Table at the top of the falls."
Alcove Spring was also host to one of the
message centers found on the overland trails. In 1849, William
Johnson noted: "We found here also one of the kind of
postoffices peculiar to the plains -- a stick driven into the
ground, in the upper end of which, in a notch, communications
are placed, intended for parties following. A letter in this
postoffice was found addressed to Captain Pyle. It was from
Captain Paul, giving information that at this place his
driver, John Fuller, had accidentally shot and killed himself
whilst removing a gun from the wagon."
Alcove Spring was the first Marshall
County, Kansas, property entered on the National
Register of Historic Places. Today it is owned by the
Alcove Spring Historical Trust of Blue Rapids, Kansas.
It is operated by the Alcove Spring Preservation
Association. It is open at no charge to the public at
any time. For further information, contact Duane Iles
at PO Box 98, Blue Rapids, KS 66411 or call at
785-363-7941/7183. |
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For further information on Alcove Spring, see:
Charles W. Martin, "The Alcove Spring," Overland Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Winter 1984)
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