"The creek bank, which is short and steep, made of some little detention in the crossing of the wagons, they had to double teams several times. It is amusing here to hear the shouting of the wagoners to their animals, whooping and hallowing; the cracking of whips almost deafening."
- Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846
"The Neosho is a quick-running stream, with a stony and gravelly bed, not over 30 feet wide at our crossing and not more than from 18 inches to 2 feet depth of water. On the opposite or west bank we found the small trading settlement of Council Grove..."
- 2d Lt. William D. Whipple, 1852
River crossings on the Santa Fe Trail were a tricky business. Ornery livestock and soft river bottoms compounded the hazards of easing a two- to three-ton wagon into the water and struggling up the opposite bank. The best crossings had a combination of shallow water, a rock bed, and gentle slopes into and out of the stream.
The shallow riffles in the river indicate the natural rock bed where heavy prairie freighters crossed the Neosho River. During trail days, the riverbanks sloped more gently to the water's edge than today. American and Mexican trader hauled tons of cloth, tools, jewelry, guns, and even canaries, in wagons headed to Santa Fe and deep into Mexico. Silver, wool, mules, and hides were hauled to Missouri and the United States by eastbound traders.
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