Residents and history buffs of Lyon County traveled the historic Santa Fe Trail Saturday, albeit a bit differently than back in the day.
Rather than riding horses and buggies, residents gathered for a bus tour of the trail that stretched from Allen to Wilmington with several stops along the way to view historic sites in the area. Organizer Jan Huston says the tour was not just about educating participants at the trail itself, but also about our own local history.
She noted that of the thousands of individuals who utilized the trail, many played a vital role in the founding of our local area, including Charles H. Withington, the first settler of the area, who founded the community of Allen and acted as the area’s first “Real estate agent.”
Huston says the tour also shone a light on the Daughters of the American Revolution, without whose forethought and efforts many years ago, the history of the trail and its importance to the local area would likely have been lost.
Saturday’s bus tour came just over five months after a new sign was erected in Northern Lyon County, specifically in Old Allen, to mark the area’s connection to the trail.
