Great Osage Trail

The Great Osage Trail, also known as the Osage Trace or the Kaw Trace was one of the more well-known Native American trails through the countryside of what are today called the Midwest and Plains States of the U.S., pathways originally created by herds of Buffalo or other migrating wildlife (Medicine Trails).

The Osage Indians and other tribes traveled among a variety of routes later named "Osage Trails" by white settlers, the famous Route 66 through southern Missouri Ozarks follows the route of one such "Osage Trail" and U.S. Route 24 through central Missouri follows the route (from Franklin, Missouri westward) of the "Great Osage Trail", which in 1825 became known as the first phase of the Santa Fe Trail, extending from central Missouri (near Franklin and Boonville, Missouri) westward shadowing the route of the Missouri River, then turning southwestward through Independence, Missouri, into Kansas; Colorado; Santa Fe, New Mexico and "Old" Mexico. From an 1881 History of Jackson County, Missouri,

"The Santa Fe trade first began at Old Franklin, a little town on the Missouri River... and continued from this point till the year 1831, when it sprung up at Independence. The town of Independence being a hundred miles further west, and near the great bend of the Missouri River, it was thought to be a more favorable place for fitting out caravans for Mexico, since also the route could be made from Franklin to Independence much better by water than land. At Independence the bulk of the trade continued till about the years 1838-40, when it began at Westport, and subsequently at Westport Landing (now Kansas City)...."

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