Like veins through the wild-west heart land, America's intestates were once dirt trails carved out by travelers, cattle and cowboys. Now all that flows through those veins is history. A history the National Parks Service is hoping to preserve along the Chisholm Trail.
The parks service is gathering information working towards making the trail — which stretches from Texas through Kansas — a National Historic Trail. The Chisholm Trail would join the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and the Oregon National Historic Trail as national landmarks. The Chisholm Trail stretches nearly 800 miles.
"We're still really towards the beginning of the process," said Frank Norris with the National Parks Service. "A year ago in March, congress passed a bill requesting the Secretary of Interior to study the Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail for feasibility as National Historic Trails."
The parks service has held public meetings along the trail including one in Wichita earlier this summer.
"To an overwhelming degree there has been public support expressed thus far for the trail," Norris said. "People like the idea of recognizing the heritage of the trail."
However, there are still questions being asked by area landowners, whose land is touched by the Chisholm Trail.
Sue Noland of Clearwater started the Chisholm Trail Landowners Alliance. The trail bisects 3/4 of her family’s 160 acres. She said people trespass on her land already due to a railroad track that runs through it — they think because of the tracks, the land is open to the public. She is worried this will happen to a higher degree should the Chisholm Trail become nationally recognized.
"If there's some big deal made about 'this is where the Chisholm Trail was' on farm ground," Noland explained, "I don't want people thinking 'oh we can walk through there.'"
Currently there is a small cement post that says "Chisholm Trail" on their property. Noland said she is fine with that being there. She just wants to make sure her land is protected now and in the future when the family farm is passed down to the next generation.
"Can they come in at some point and say 'okay, we're just going to designate this 200 feet, but you can't cross it with your machinery'?" Noland asked. "Well then we'd have to go out on the road, a half mile down, and a half mile up to get to that same field.”
The National Parks Service basically said landowners can be as involved as much or as little as they way.
"It's an established fact essentially all of Kansas is privately owned land," Norris said. "...There is no power that the Parks Service has for National Historic Trails in which in any realistic mode we would ever acquire any property or ever infringe on the rights of existing private property rights."
He said he realizes there will be owners who are at both ends of the spectrum, some wanting to show off their segment of the trail, some who don't want the public to be on their land.
"And that's perfectly okay as far as we're concerned because this is entirely a cooperative partnership effort," Norris said. "We're not treading on property rights whatsoever."
As far as landowners who might want to build on the possible National Historic Trail, Norris said that was also not an issue.
"If they want to build a series of condos or a hotel and it happens to be right on the trail treads, more power to them, because there was never any anticipation that there was going to be any kind of land reclamation to be able to create guinue historical trail routes," Norris said.
He said the parks service isn't entirely sure, even in Kansas, about exactly where the trail was. The trail does run through Caldwell and Sumner County such as seven miles west of Wellington.
"There is a marker out there, it's a mile south of US 160," said Richard Gilfilan at the Chisholm Trail Museum, 502 South Washington in Wellington. He thinks the historic trail designation would be a good thing.
"It can't hurt," Gilfilan said. "I'm hoping that it might bring visitors to our museum."
There is still a long way to go before the Chisholm Trail becomes a National Historic Trail. Norris said the NPS is in the process of creating a "scoping report." The report is a record showing all of the public comments, concerns and thoughts that have been gathered. The scoping report will let everyone know what everybody else is thinking on the subject.
"Within a month or so we'll have up on our website a copy of this scoping report, in which we'll identify the process, where meetings were held, what we've done so far," Norris said.
Only an act of congress can turn a trail into a National Historic Trail. The public comment segment of the project closed earlier this summer. Noland thinks more could be done.
"They had 12 meetings from Texas to Abilene; that's all," Noland said. "To me two meetings in Kansas during harvest was not a good plan."
She just wants to make sure he property won't be opened to the public.
"We're not rich or anything," she said. "We just want to live our simple life outside of Clearwater, farming, without some big thing going through there."
In the presentation shown at the public meetings, the timeline was presented for the Chisholm Trail to become a National Historic Trail. If all goes according to schedule, that will take place in the fall of 2012.
"We want to do what we can to preserve, protect, and interpret the trail," Norris said. "Without treading on property rights."
On the web:
Chisholm Trail Landowners Alliance
www.chisholmtraillandowners.com
National Parks Service
www.nps.gov
Chisholm Trail Museum
skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Wellington/museum.html
NPS Historic Trail timeline
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Prepare report of public meetings and comments
Summer, 2010
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Gather data on route location, natioanl significance, etc.
Winter, 2010-2011
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Apply historic trail criteria, develop draft alteratives
Spring, 2011
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Conduct public reveiw of draft study.
Fall and Winter 2011-2012
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Address public review, prepare final document
Summer, 2012
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Transmit to the U.S. Congress
Fall 2012
