A local history of Jerome Township, Gove County, Kansas
Creator: Baker, Fred
Date: 1918
This is a local history of Jerome Township, Gove County, Kansas, as recollected by Fred Baker, Gove City, Kansas. Baker wrote this sketch and submitted it in March 1918 to the Golden Belt Educational Association at Hays, Kansas, and was awarded a prize. Also included is a letter from Judge J.C. Ruppenthal, Russell, Kansas, to William Connelly, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas, who received the sketch from Baker and wished for it to be donated into the Society's holdings.

Annals of Kansas
Creator: Wilder, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster), 1832-1911
Date: 1886
Daniel Webster Wilder compiled a chronological history of Kansas from the first European contact (1541) to 1885. The early portion has entries for specific years but beginning in 1854, the entries are for specific days, providing detail about many events. The volume also contains charts with crop production, livestock holdings, precipitation, etc. A detailed index begins on page 1171.

Austin Smith to Jedediah Smith
Creator: Smith, Austin
Date: September 24, 1831
This letter is from Austin Smith to his father, Jedediah Smith, Sr. In the letter, Austin informs his father of the death of his brother, Jedediah Strong Smith, who was killed by Comanche Indians on May 27, 1831, near the Cimarron River.

Bourgmont's route to central Kansas
Creator: Reichart, Milton
Date: September 15, 1979
Milton Reichart created this map to accompany his article on Etienne de Bourgmont's route to central Kansas which appeared in the Summer 1979 issue of Kansas History (Vol. 2, no. 2). Reichart adapted the map from the State Geological Survey of Kansas, 1964 M-1.

Chain Mail from the Majors Site, 14RC2
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These links of chain mail were recovered from the Majors site in Rice County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1982. The chain mail, a series of small interlocking iron rings in a 4-in-1 pattern (each riveted ring linked to four others), was brought to Kansas by 16th-century Spanish explorers. The Majors site was a Great Bend aspect, Little River focus village. The people that inhabited Great Bend aspect sites are ancestral to the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.

Chain Mail from the Majors Site, 14RC2
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These links of chain mail were recovered from the Majors site in Rice County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1982. The chain mail, a series of small metal rings linked together, was brought to Kansas by sixteenth-century Spanish explorers. The Majors site was a Great Bend aspect, Little River focus (ancestral Wichita) village that was occupied during the late 17th century based on southwestern pottery styles.

Chain Mail from the Saxman Site, 14RC301
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These links of chain mail were recovered at the Saxman site in Rice County and donated in 1977 to the Kansas Historical Society. The chain mail consists of several individual rings, series' of several rings linked together, and small masses of rings rusted together. The chain mail was brought to Kansas by sixteenth-century Spanish explorers. The Saxman site was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village occupied in the Late Ceramic period.

Chain Mail from the Sharps Creek Site, 14MP408
Date: 1541-1800 CE
These fragments of chain mail were recovered from excavations at the 1992 and 1993 Kansas Archeology Training Program field schools at the Sharps Creek site. The chain mail, a series of small metal rings linked together, was brought to Kansas by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. The Sharps Creek site was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village in McPherson County.

Chain Mail from the Thompson Site, 14RC9
Date: 1541-1720 CE
These three chain mail fragments were recovered during excavations at the Thompson site in Rice County during the 1986 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school. The chain mail consists of several individual rings, series of several rings linked together, and small masses of rings rusted together. The chain mail was brought to Kansas by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth-century. The site, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village occupied during the Late Ceramic Period.

Colonel Don Estevan Miro to the Ioway Indians
Date: March 15, 1784
This document was presented to Antoine Burada by his uncle, George Campbell. George Campbell was the "half-breed" son of Vance Murray Campbell, a fur trader and U. S. treaty interpreter, who fathered several children by the daughter of No Heart, an Ioway chief. Their daughter Emily (sister of George) married Michael T. Barada. Their son Antoine Barada (1863-1924) of White Cloud, Kansas, was one of several by that name in the Ioway and Omaha tribes, so he is not to be confused with his first cousin Antoine Barada (1807-1885) of Barada, Nebraska, a celebrated figure in that state's folklore. This is the Antoine Barada who signed the treaty between the United States and the Kansas Nation, at St. Louis, in 1815. The document is addressed to "de la Nacion Ayoas" - the Ioway nation - and was signed by Colonel Don Estevan Miro, who was the Spanish governor of Louisiana during the period when it was secretly deeded by the French to the Spanish. It was presented to the Iowa Nation at the Spanish Office of the Province of Louisiana, at New Orleans, March 15, 1784. This document was donated to the Kansas Historical Society circa 1905 according to the Transactions of KSHS, vol. 9 (1905-1906), p. 251, note 55.

Coronado sets out to discover Quivira
Date: Between 1900 and 1940
This postcard depicts Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his group of explorers on their search for the fabled city of Quivera. Coronado and his men were among the first of the European explorers to visit the plains. The goal of the early Spanish explorers was to discover riches north of Mexico. Coronado's 1541 expedition to discover gold in Quivera led him to the area that would later become Kansas.

Coronado starts for Quivira
Date: 1940s
This postcard depicts Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his group of explorers on their search for the fabled city of Quivera. Coronado and his men were among the first of the European explorers to visit the plains. The goal of the early Spanish explorers was to discover riches north of Mexico. Coronado's 1541 expedition to discover gold in Quivera led him to the area that would later become Kansas.

"Coronado" sword
Date: 1700s
In 1886 a man found this sword blade thirty miles northwest of Cimarron, Kansas. Initially the sword was taken as proof of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540-1541 expedition to what is now Kansas. Instead of an artifact from the Coronado expedition, the blade is now believed to have been sent to America by the Spanish in a shipment of blades. Perhaps it was intended for army use or for trade, which may account for its discovery near the Santa Fe Trail, a major U.S. - Mexico trade route for many years.

Country drained by the Mississippi, western section
Creator: Long, Stephen Harriman, 1784-1864
Date: 1822
This map shows Stephen Long's depiction of the "Great American Desert" and the rivers draining east from the Rocky Mountains. The map supported the claim that much of the great plains region was unsuitable for agriculture and white settlement and lent support to the creation of an Indian territory to which Indians would be removed. Under orders from John C. Calhoun, secretary of war, Long lead an expedition into the territory west of the Missouri River in 1819 and 1820 to acquire thorough and accurate information on the soil, geography, water courses, animals, vegetation, and minerals in the new territory. The map was published in an atlas (1822) accompanying Stephen H. Long's Account of An Expedition From Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and 1820 (1823).

E.D. Smith to George W. Martin
Creator: Smith, E.D.
Date: June 09, 1906
This is a letter from E.D. Smith, Meade County, to George W. Martin, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas. Smith writes to Martin telling how much he enjoyed reading volume eight of the Historical Society's report, but that he disagrees with W.E. Richey's paper on Coronado's trip to Kansas. Smith believes that Coronado's route wasn't exactly the way Richey recounts.

Front page of account of Major Zebulon M. Pike's exploration
Date: 1807-1810
The beginning page of the report submitted by Major Zebulon M. Pike of his exploration of the western United States submitted to Congress and published in 1810. Zebulon Pike was an army lieutenant sent by the U.S. government to explore the southern part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1806. Upon his return, Pike prepared a report to the U.S. government in which he described the Plains as the "Great American Desert."

Gunflints from 14EK302
Date: 1700-1850
These four gunflints were found on the surface of a multicomponent camp or village site in Elk County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1972. Gunflints were used to generate a spark in a flintlock musket or pistol and as strike-a-lights for lighting a fire. These blade gunflint have a single dorsal arris and were quarried and manufactured in southern England.

History of Gove County, Kansas
Creator: Harrington, Wynne Powers, 1870-1943
Date: December 11, 1917
This is an historical sketch of Gove County, Kansas, written by W.P. Harrington. The history covers early European exploration and continues until the end of the nineteenth century.

Horse chain mail
Date: 1540 - 1541 CE
Horse chain mail armor believed to be a part of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition to Kansas between 1540 and 1541.

Jedediah Smith to brother
Creator: Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831
Date: December 24, 1829
This letter is from Jedidiah Strong Smith (1799-1831) to his brother Ralph Smith (1794-1867) living in Ohio at the time of the letter. Jedidiah writes this letter in 1829 at Wind River which is located on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. In the letter, Jedidiah writes about his journey, including the dangers and opportunities this trip provides him, and asks for information from home when Ralph writes next.

Jedediah Smith to Ralph Smith
Creator: Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831
Date: January 26, 1831
This letter is from Jedidiah Strong Smith (1799-1831) to his brother Ralph Smith (1794-1867) who was living in Wayne County, Ohio at the time of the letter in 1831. This letter is written from St. Louis, Missouri months before Jedidiah Smith was killed by Comanche Indians in May of 1831 on the Cimaron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail near the Cimarron River. In the letter, Jedidiah writes about his travels and people he encounters and interacts with including children and doctors.

Jedediah Smith to Ralph Smith
Creator: Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831
Date: February 28, 1831
This letter is from Jedidiah Strong Smith (1799-1831) to his brother Ralph Smith (1794-1867) who was living in Wayne County, Plaine Township, Ohio at the time the letter was written from St. Louis, Missouri. The letter is written months prior to Jedidiah's death by Comanche Indians on the Santa Fe Trail near the Cimarron River. In the letter, Jedidiah writes about his travels, their Father and his anticipation of receiveing a letter from his family back home soon.

Knife Blade from Blue Earth Village, 14PO24
Date: 1795-1830 CE
This knife blade fragment was recovered from the Blue Earth village site and donated to the Kansas Historical Society. The blade still has a portion of its tang, but is missing the handle. Blue Earth village was a Kansa Indian village in Pottawatomie County. Many lodge depressions were still visible on the surface in the 1880s.

Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike
Date: 1807-1810
This illustration of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike is taken from an account of his military expedition from western Louisiana to the interior parts of New Spain conducted between 1806 and 1807. Zebulon Pike was an army lieutenant sent by the U.S. government to explore the southern part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1806. Upon his return, Pike prepared a report to the U.S. government in which he described the Plains as the "Great American Desert."

Louisiana Purchase "1803"
Creator: Fletcher-Boeselt Collection
Date: November 1986
This map shows the territorial outline of the acquisition of land know as the Louisiana Purchase. It is an updated reprint from an unknown original source.