Council Grove / Morris Co.

Council Grove, (population 2,300) is the county seat of Morris County and was named after an agreement between European Americans and the Osage Nation regarding allowing settlers' wagon trains to pass through the area and proceed to the West. Pioneers gathered at a grove of trees so that wagons could band together for their trip west.

The first European-American settler was Seth Hays, who came to the area in 1847 to trade with the Kaw tribe, which had a reservation established in the area in 1846. Hays, a grandson of Daniel Boone, opened a restaurant in 1857, the Hays House, which is said to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River.

Council Grove was also one of the last stops on the Santa Fe Trail heading southwest, and General Custer of the United States Army slept here with his troops during the American Civil War, under a large tree known now as the Custer Elm.

The town has 13 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One is Post Office Oak, where travelers left their mail to be picked up by others going in the direction that of the intended mail.

Both the 3,000 acre Council Grove Reservoir and the 500-acre City Lake are popular for recreational activities. The lakes are open to the public and motorized boats and offer excellent fishing opportunities.

Nestled in the scenic Flint Hills prairie in east-central Kansas, Morris County's beckoning back country looks much like it did a century ago. Back then Kaw Indians made this beautiful prairie their home, and wagon trains rolled through, west bound on the Santa Fe Trail. Remnants of the ruts remain around the area.

Council Grove is 120 miles southwest of Kansas City or 55 miles southwest of Topeka, and only 24 miles west of the I-335 Kansas Turnpike and 28 miles south of Interstate-70 (at the crossroads of US-56 and State-177).

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