Pawnee Rock Letterbox

Planted by rtrw on October 9th ,2002

Difficulty - simple
Time - drive up
Directions to starting place - Kansas Highway 56. When you reach
Pawnee Rock (the town), follow signs as you drive mile north to
the rock


Details you should know -
Pawnee Rock was named for an Indian battle between the Pawnees and
Comanches. The landmark was located near Fort Larned in the buffalo
hunting territory of the Pawnees. As a famous natural fortress on the
Santa Fe Trail, it became known as the "Prairie Citadel." Pawnee
Rock was an outcrop of Dakota Sandstone on which travelers carved
their names, making it look like a hotel register. Settlers have used
most of the rock for building material, but what is left of it has
now been preserved as a state park. Please do not carve your name.

Details you don't need to know, but might enjoy -
I have been told by local people that the rock is one third as high
as it used to be before people started carting off the rock. "Many
stories have been told to explain how Pawnee Rock got its name. A
tradition among white plainsmen was that the Rock received its name
in 1826 from an embarrassing mistake by Kit Carson. A raw youth of
seventeen, Carson was on his first trip into the West. The wagon
train with which he was working camped for the night near the Rock.
He was given guard duty. In the dark, he shot his own mule, thinking
it was an attacking Pawnee. His unkind associates commemorated his
unfortunate experience with the name, Pawnee Rock."


Clues: Drive up to the top of the hill and look in the tree with a
bunch of trunks in the Northwest corner of the fenced in area.
Gloves would be a good idea when reaching in.

Please email any box needs to rtrw@attbi.com. Enjoy our box