Last updated: July 29, 2021
Article
The Gathering at the Grove
NPS Photo
On West Main Street in Council Grove, Kansas, on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail, stands the stump of the Council Oak, named for an important gathering held beneath its branches on August 10, 1825. Said to be the tallest oak in a mile-wide grove, this witness tree is where the chiefs of the Great and Little Osage Indian tribes and three US commissioners negotiated an agreement to grant travelers safe passage along the Santa Fe Trail through Osage territory to present-day New Mexico.
Present at the signing of the Council Grove treaty were Pa-hu-skah (Pawhuska), head chief of the Great Osages; Watonga, head chief of the Little Osages; five other chiefs and nine warriors, in addition to three commissioners appointed by President John Quincy Adams; a secretary; a surveyor; an interpreter; and fifteen other white men. This was one of several agreements that the Osage signed with the US government, including treaties that led to extensive land cessions that vastly diminished Osage territory. In 1825, the US government signed a total of eight treaties with eleven tribes concerning passage along the Santa Fe Trail.
Photo/Frank Wilson Blackmar, Standard Pub. Co.
The historic meeting inspired the naming of the community of Council Grove. George Sibley, one of the three commissioners, wrote in his journal, "I suggested naming the place ‘Council Grove’ which was agreed to, & Capt. Cooper directed to Select a Suitable Tree, & to record this name in Strong and durable characters–which was done…" The community of Council Grove, which began to form around 1847, became an important waypoint on the Santa Fe Trail for travelers to access water, feed for animals, and lumber from the surrounding groves of hardwood timber. Trail travelers could also procure provisions and repair equipment there before venturing further into the tallgrass plains, where hardwood for axles, wheels, and other wagon parts would be scarce.
Passing through that area in 1846, author and historian Francis Parkman wrote, “It seemed like a new sensation as we rode beneath the resounding arches of these noble woods,– ash, oak, elm, maple, and hickory, festooned with enormous grape-vines purple with fruit."
In 1995 the Philomathian Club, a historic women’s club, identified 15 trees from the period of the Santa Fe Trail still alive in Council Grove, the oldest of which was a bur oak that is believed to have sprouted in 1694. The Council Oak, which originally stood about 70 feet tall and measured 16 feet around, was not one of the 15 trees identified, having blown down in 1958 during a large storm. Today a shelter protects the six-foot stump of the Council Oak tree, which is the key feature of the Council Oak National Historic Landmark District.
Plan a Visit to the Council Oak
References
- Cole, Linda and Britt. The 1825 Kaw Indian Peace Treaty. The Quivia Chapter, Santa Fe Trail Association, 2010.
- “Council Oak.” An Intersection of Cultures. Kaw Mission. Date accessed: July 8, 2021.
- "Council Oak at Council Grove, Kansas." Santa Fe Trail Research. Date accessed: July 08, 2021. https://www.santafetrailresearch.com
- “Council Oak in Council Grove.” Santa Fe National Historic Trail. National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Date accessed: July 9, 2021.
- National Register of Historic Places, Council Grove National Historic Landmark, Council Grove, Morris County, Kansas, National Register #66000347
- “Old council oak tree in Council Grove, Kansas.” Kansas Memory. Kansas Historical Society. Date accessed: July 9, 20201.