In October 1869, Robert McBratney led a team of men on an inspection tour of the Solomon Valley.

McBratney was the president of the Junction City, Solomon Valley & Denver Railroad. The railroad only existed on paper, but promoters were convinced that a line up the Solomon River valley would be a profitable venture.

U.S. Senator Edmund G. Ross, Benjamin Franklin Mudge, professor at the Agricultural College and former state geologist and Richard Mobley, state agent for the sale of railroad lands, joined McBratney to evaluate the prospects of laying track all the way to Colorado. The party met at Solomon City, the point where the Solomon River joins the Smoky Hill River. From there, the river courses to the northwest. They passed through the frontier village of Minneapolis and the prairie post office of Delphos. They arrived at the camp of Captain I.

N. Dalrymple, Second Battalion Kansas State Militia, at noon on Oct.

18, 1869. McBratney described two salt springs flowing out of opposite sides of the river near the camp.

Kansas Governor James M. Harvey had ordered 100 state troops to accompany the inspection party for protection from Indian attacks.

Over the past 14 months the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux had twice raided the new settlements from the Saline River to the Republican River. Settlers had been killed, captives taken, cabins and barns burned and the Solomon Valley was right in the middle of the conflict. Elements of the Second Battalion were stationed all along the northern frontier.

Capt. Dalrymple detailed 10 men under Sergeant Lyon to escort McBratney’s party to the Solomon Forks. The party would be joined by other state troops as they proceeded further up the valley.

A cold rain set in and turned to snow the morning of Oct. 19. As they left the camp on Fisher Creek (west of present-day Glasco), wind-blown snow swirled over the whitened landscape.

Wet snow made travel difficult. The mule’s hooves balled with snow, which interfered with their footing. Fifteen miserable miles brought them to Plum Creek (southeast of present-day Beloit). Company C of the state troops, under the command of Captain W. A. Winsell, was stationed in a relatively comfortable camp for men and horses. Winsell also provided men for escort.

According to McBratney, “All of them have old scores to settle … and are ready for it.”

Winsell had intended to personally command the escort, but his wife, who was in camp with their children, became “suddenly and severely ill.”

First Lieutenant Joseph Becock was assigned to the task. McBratney bought 16 bushels of corn locally and employed a hunter to carry half the corn at least to the Solomon Forks.

“Our cavalcade of 40 men and eight wagons (including three hunters) make quite a formidable appearance,” McBratney wrote.

Four miles brought them to the steep banks of Mulberry Creek. The wagons were manually pulled over the banks by 20 men with lariats. The whole operation was repeated at the equally steep banks of Brown’s Creek just two miles west.

Eight more miles brought them to Limestone Creek and the wide valley of the Solomon Forks. Today, Glen Elder Reservoir (Lake Waconda) covers the confluences of the North and South Solomon Rivers. The trail led over the uplands. “The soil was of the richest vegetable mold.” To satisfy their curiosity, McBratney’s team dug 20 inches into the deep black loam “on the highest point,” without reaching the subsoil or getting below the roots of the prairie grass. McBratney found the valley not less than six miles in width.

“I have never, anywhere, seen a valley that would compare with this for breadth and fertility, or … more attractive to the farmer. It cannot be beaten,” McBratney wrote.

While at The Forks, the team was eager to visit the legendary Waconda or Great Spirit Springs. McBratney called the spring “the great natural curiosity of Kansas.” It was situated on one of the bends in the South Branch of the Solomon River. It rises above a ravine that extends entirely around the mound. The mound of lime and sandy shale rock was an oval, 300 feet across in one direction and nearly 460 feet across in the other direction, rising to a height of 30 feet. The salty water “with a decided flavor of lime,” was equal to the level of the high prairie that surrounded the mound and oozed over and through the rocks, covering the mound with salty incrustations. The team found that, “In the rocks are found some fine deposits of carbonate of lime, out of which the Indians sometimes manufacture very pretty beads.”

The State Militia forces engaged by Gov. Harvey to protect McBratney’s inspection party were camped at The Forks and ready to go, but to McBratney’s dismay, none of them had ventured beyond the Solomon Forks. The next morning, Oct. 22, the entourage would take up their march along the North Fork. There would be no road, no guides, except the river with its branches “and with hourly prospects of encountering Indians — but we are going.”

Afterall, venturing into the unknown was the way of the Kansas pioneer as he looked toward new horizons on The Way West. (Next time – Into the Unknown) “The Cowboy,” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@ kans.com.