So, I’ve decided to try and take you on a virtual trip down the trail. Since we’ve already talked about Jumping Off towns, let’s move on to one of the first stops a family might make.
If one (say, my fictional family) were to decide to take the Oregon/California trail, jumping off from Independence, depending on exactly which route they took, they might spend their first night camping at Cave Spring, pass through (or camp at) the Shawnee Indian Mission and, if they were traveling in 1858 or later, stop by the Mahaffie House, around three days into the trip. Which technically makes it stop like…four…but I have to pick and choose a little or we’ll be here all year. Now, if you were to look up the Mahaffie House, you might note that it is technically a stop along the Santa Fe trail – but, especially when jumping off from Independence or Westport, the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trail all shared the same route for the the first several days.
Currently known as the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm, it began serving customers from the trail around 1858, and, as the years progressed, became a stagecoach stop as well. They started out in a smaller building and then progressed to a larger one as they became a more popular spot and began serving meals to travelers from the basement.
Even today, it serves as a working farm based on operations from the 1860s and admission gets you access to numerous buildings, demonstrations, and a stagecoach ride – which is where I learned that all those movies showing far too many people piling out of stagecoaches were actually accurate. When we visited in 2001, Daniel and I barely fit in one seat that would have been expected to accommodate a minimum of three!
Possible stops along the way to the Mahaffie House (courtesy of the National Park Service)
See below for full map, and note the tiny orange line indicating how far we traveled!
Resources:
- Fanselow, Julie. Traveling the Oregon Trail. Falcon Guides, 1997.
- “Mahaffie House // Santa Fe Trail Historic Sites.” Accessed February 20, 2025. https://historic-trails.unm.edu/sites/mahaffie-house.html.
- “Mahaffie, Olathe, KS | Mahaffie Home Page.” Accessed February 20, 2025. https://www.mahaffie.org/mahaffie-home-page.
- “Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service).” Accessed February 20, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/places/mahaffie-stagecoach-stop-farm-historic-site.htm.
- National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide: Western Missouri Through Northeastern Kansas, 2005.
- OCTA. “The Oregon & California Trails in Missouri and Kansas.” OCTA, July 5, 2022. https://octa-trails.org/the-missouri-and-kansas-trails/?srsltid=AfmBOor1j5_0Yg67FPpCZ9TRTiK6yZr-DajvRHlGV3HQI_417ZJaQooR.
- Santa Fe Trail Association, Oregon-California Trails Association, City of Gardner, and National Park Service. “Visit the Trails – East.” Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails, n.d. https://www.nps.gov/safe/learn/historyculture/upload/Visit-the-Trails-East-508.pdf.
- “The Main House at the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm.” Accessed February 20, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2020742038/.
Forest Idylls 