Photos Around Council Grove (and a Big Truck Video!)
By Cory Allen Heidelberger on 2024-07-01
One of the merits of parking the bike early is having time to walk around town. Council Grove is a good town for walking around.
The Madonna of the Trail was no gentle lass, not when she had to walk behind the wagon dragging those kids along.A local newspaper!The Council Grove Republican, published daily, Monday through Friday, available on the street (and the honor system!) for 60¢.Church on West Main Street.I’ll bet it used to be a church, but now it’s a community center, with office space for non-profits.I don’t garden, but if I did, I’d enjoy buying my plants downtown at Grove Gardens, which looks like a converted gas station. Hooray for reclaiming and greening the old bastions of dinosaur fuel!Curbside flowers at Grove Gardens.Looks like a downtown should (to the eyes of a prairie kid who grew up in Madison).Council Grove is cool enough: it has Flint HIlls Books (cozy and open on Sunday!) and an electric scooter dude.
Bonus video: scooter dude had to wait for this block-long trailer to navigate through the bookstore corner on Main Street:
I thought that semi behind the rig was just following, but it was actually connected and pushing! I don’t know if they do this every Sunday in Council Grove, but I’d come watch again!
With the giant truck-trailer-truck combo out of the way, it’s time to walk again:
Council Grove is named for the woodsy area where Kaw and Osage leaders met with agents of the United States federal government in 1825, 199 years ago, to formalize trade and travel rights through Indian land. Another bad deal for the Indians: we negotiated right of passage on the Santa Fe Trail for a measly “$800 in cash, plus ribbons, tobacco, calico, and other goods.”. We should have let the Indians require wagoneers and other travelers buy a trail sticker each year, for ongoing tribal revenue. One-time peanuts (and ribbons) up front—sounds like what the pipeliners do to white landowners nowadays!Remnants of the Council Oak, where the trail treaty was arranged, stand and hang under a pyramidal metal canopy.The Santa Fe Trail, west from Council Grove—it’s not an old rail trail, not marked all the way west, so I’ll need to do some more planning before I follow that route by bicycle.
The Santa Fe Trail, west from Council Grove—not an old rail-trail, not marked all the way, so I’ll need to do more planning before I try bicycling that route.Tiny depot… next locale for NPR music features?In local politics, this local Senate candidate can’t be all that bright, what with that Trump flag flying in his yard.In all seriousness, Jason Bacon wants to be Sheriff of Morris County.Council Grove has a lovely park and paths along the Neosho River, right by downtown.
Visitors to the Riverwalk are greeted by this sculpture by Thomas Mark Sampsel.
It’s not an actual historic Indian, just a representation of themes of American Indian values and history.
Visitors are welcome to interpret the symbolism of the tiny American flags placed at the sculpture’s feet.Last, the tree of peace, planted in 1992 to symbolize hope and reconciliation between Indian and white Americans, now appears to have a crack in it. Time to plant more trees!
