Those who went west came through here

A couple of weeks ago I drove about 30 minutes to the North and West and ran across the Oregon Trail. Today I drove about 14 South on US 75 and then 6 miles on 56 and found the Santa Fe Trail. The Trails for the most started in Independence,Missouri and whether they ended up in Oregon,California ,Utah or New Mexico, hundreds of thousands passed through Kansas, fairly close to Topeka. Wheel ruts of the 6 foot tall wagons can still be seen in fields,and parks in this part of the country. One of the speakers I heard today spoke of the covers of Conastoga wagons as far as the eye could see.

This week the town of Overbrook with it's 900 or so residents celebrated "Santa Fe Trail Days" a two day celebration at the fairgrounds which are doted with 4H barns and advertisements for next weeks Demolition Derby. Yes, the sign on the water tower does say "Don't overlook Overbrook".

At 11am there was a parade which the next entry will detail in pictures. It went down a residental street near the fair grounds past a guy with a home speaker system discribing the enterants and announcing the winners of yesterday Coloring contest. He interviewed some of the marchers, my favorite was a couple from Oklahoma who announced themselves as "from the terriotory of Oklahoma, soon to be a state". The parade was all horses or horse drawn wagons, except for the final marcher a golf cart with a man scooping up the horse droppings, I resisted the urge to photograph that. The Costumes were amazing as were the horses.

The fair itself had historical speakers,horse riding contest,re enactors doing bull whip demostrations,gun fights, a tent served as a Salloon with girls in period costume playing Scott Joplin rags and served Pop in a bottle, Root Beer,Orange and Grape Nehi.