The park is just an open space with a bunch of plaques for the various trails that came through here. It sits in the shadow of US 36 just west of Marysville, but the only access is from US 77 on the south side (okay, 77 is up there with 36 as well on the west side, but it's clearly just hitching an east-west ride). Then you ride on a poorly maintained gravel and dirt trail right next to railroad tracks for over a mile, including a tiny wooden bridge that makes you wonder if these directions were actually conceived by an evil reclusive clown, and suddenly you arrive at a loop with the following:


The plaques are fairly boring, except for the separate one at the end (Oregon Trail, reminiscent of Augustus St.-Gaudens) and maybe the one that fell over (just because destruction is fun), so here are the trails: Oregon, California, Mormon, Pony Express (how is that a trail, it's just a mail delivery service), St. Joe Road (a branch of the California Trail?), Military Road (not a trail based on the name), Overland Stage Route (come on, that just followed other trails), and the Otoe-Missouria rail, created when our 19th century ancestors herded Native Americans around like buffalo and slaughtered them about as frequently. Oh, and let's count an old rope ferry (woo, replica, so exciting) as a trail just for kicks. Okay, so there were three trails here and Marysville desperately wants a reason to be visited. (In fairness, the Pony Express Museum was neat, and few people actually come out to this park... which is related somehow to the condition of the access road, I'm sure.)

Back to Kansas Roads
Back to Roads