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KIT CARSON. 21

 

About ten miles west of Ellis we found such an
organization already under way, a large tract of land
having been purchased by Messrs. Chaffee, Lower, and
others, of Shelbyville, Ill. Early in the spring the town
of Keim will be laid out on the tract, and a church,
school-house and hotel erected, wells dug, trees planted,
and a colony formed, which from the well-known
business habits and energy of its projectors, will not be
excelled by any similar organization in the West, and I
can commend the place to any one wishing a good and
healthy home.

At Wallace we stop for breakfast, and here I had the
pleasure of eating my first buffalo and antelope steak.

The table was as well laid as that at Topeka, and one °

naturally wondered where all the good things came
from, so many miles (420) from the Missouri river.

Fort Wallace, a fine post, is situated two miles south-
east from the station.

Between Arapahoe and Cheyenne Wells we cross
the west State line of Kansas into the Territory of
Colorado, and the next stop of importance is at Kit
Carson, named after the illustrious frontiersman and
scout, whose home and haunts were located at this wild
and romantic spot. Kit Carson is the northern termi-
nus of the Arkansas Valley Branch of the Kansas Pacific
Railway, its present southern terminal point, at a dis-
tance of 56 miles, being Las Animas, which is a trad-
ing point of great importance and is situated on the
south bank of the Arkansas river, about three miles
above the mouth of the Purgatoire. This being also