Wagon Bed Spring (Kansas)

Wagon Bed Spring (also Lower Spring or Lower Cimarron Spring), located in Grant County, Kansas, was an important watering spot on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. The flow of the spring came from an outcropping of the Ogallala Formation. Center pivot irrigation adjacent to the spring resulted in lowering of the water table and the spring ceased to flow in the 1960s. A number of small artifacts dating from the days of the Santa Fe Trail have been recovered from lands near the spring which were used by both American Indians and wagon trains as a campground. The name "wagon bed" dates from later use of an old wagon bed as a trough to collect water from the spring. There is a foundation on the site of an ice house. Floods have changed the course of the Cimarron River; the site of the spring is now in the bed of the river rather than on its bank as it was in the days of the Santa Fe Trail.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

It is located about 12 miles (19 km) south of Ulysses, on the west side of US 270.

Famous quotes containing the words wagon, bed and/or spring:

    “A bumpity ride in a wagon of hay
    For me,” says Jane.
    Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)

    And you’re too fired up to go to sleep, you sit at the kitchen table. It’s really late, it’s really quiet, you’re tired. Don’t wanna go to bed, though. Going to bed means this was the day. This Feb. 12, this Aug. 3, this Nov. 20 is over and you’re tired and you made some money but it didn’t happen, nothing happened. You got through it and a whole day of your life is over. And all it is—is time to go to bed.
    Claudia Shear, U.S. author. New York Times, p. A21 (September 29, 1993)

    What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
    What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
    What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
    What are deep? The ocean and truth.
    Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)