Kaw Mission State Historic Site
Kaw Mission and Last Chance Store State Historic Site in Council Grove feature new exhibits.
This was the site of an international commerce trail when the Kanza were forcibly relocated to a diminished reservation here in 1846. Hundreds of wagon trains filled with goods to trade with Mexico passed through daily. Speculators headed to the gold fields of western Kansas Territory followed.
The native stone mission was completed in 1851. Designed to accommodate 50 male Kanza students as regular boarders, it was also home to teachers, missionaries, and farmers. School began in May 1851 under the direction of Thomas Sears Huffaker, a 24-year-old teacher who had served in the same capacity at Shawnee Mission near present-day Kansas City. The mission school ceased operation in 1854. It was eventually sold to Huffaker.
Discover more about the history of the mission, Council Grove, and intersection of cultures through new interpretation and displays.
