"This is an exciting moment. Every window sash is raised, and anxious faces appear watching with interest the departure...Accidents are very apt to occur on the occasion of a setting out."
-Matt Field, on leaving Independence in 1839
Membership
Anyone interested in the Santa Fe Trail is welcome to join the Missouri River Outfitters Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association.
• Dues are $10 per year for either a family or individual membership.
• Members receive the MRO Newsletter published quarterly and additional notices of chapter activities.
• Consistent with the recently adopted changes in SFTA bylaws, all MRO chapter members are strongly encouraged to join the national Santa Fe Trail Association (SFTA). To download an SFTA application, click here. To download the MRO membership form, click here.
Meets several times each year to conduct chapter business and plan meetings, field trips, projects, and other activities.
History of the Missouri River Outfitters Chapter
The Missouri River Outfitters Chapter originated in a trail ride organization formed in 1987, about the time that Congress designated the Santa Fe Trail as a National Historic Trail. At the time, the organization's intent was to promote the trail by way of members presenting programs to civic and school groups, and to provide a support system for members who planned to travel by horseback on any or all parts of the Santa Fe and related trails. In 1988, the group incorporated as a not-for-profit status through the state of Missouri, and chose the name Santa Fe Trail Riders-1988.
In February of 1991, Trail Riders member Jane Mallinson advertised through local publications that a meeting would be held at the National Frontier Trails Center for those interested in forming a local chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association. On February 21, 1991, 31 people gathered for the beginning of what became the Missouri River Outfitters. Of those in attendance, three were original members of the previous trail ride organization. Because the intent of the organizations was the same, those three agreed to participate in a name change and transfer over the not-for-profit incorporation status to the new SFTA chapter. The first president was Roger Slusher, elected April 18, 1991.
Franklin Marker
The chapter has provided books on the Santa Fe Trail to libraries (both public and academic), and helped research and fund the placement of markers to highlight trail exposure. The chapter has partnered with the National Frontier Trails Center (now the National Frontier Trails Museum) and with other local trail organizations on projects and presentations that educate the public on the Trails themselves and their historical impact upon the emerging American identity. We have sponsored programs on firearms, mules, wagons, individuals important to local and national trail history, foods and clothing of the trail period, mapping criteria, GPS site points, and many other subjects that help members keep abreast of trail events as they navigate their own journey through history.
Location and Directions
The Missouri River Outfitters (MRO) chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association has responsibility for the Trail in the Missouri counties of Howard, Saline, Lafayette, and Jackson, as well as Johnson county in Kansas. Meetings are held at various places along the trail. The most regular location is the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri.
Points of Interest:
A few of the many sites of interest along the Santa Fe Trail within the chapter area.
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Chapter Activities
Plans are currently underway to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the onset of the 1825 Sibley Survey. Your MRO Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association is working with Jackson County Parks +Rec to plan an informative and festive day at Fort Osage. The working plans feature living historians portraying George Sibley and his team of surveyors as they started west to perform the first government survey of the Santa Fe Trail. Steve Schmidt, a premier historian of the Sibley Survey, will make presentations relating the reasons for the survey, how it came about, and who was involved. We hope to create an exciting day for our young people, their parents, and grandparents. The event will be open to the public. Admission Fees: Adults: $8.00, Seniors (62 and over): $4.00, Youth (5-13): $4.00, Anyone under 5 is free.
The Missouri River Outfitters have worked actively with SFTA and the National Park Service to add new signage over the past couple of years along the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. When federal guidelines by the Federal Department of Transportation were adopted by the states MRO worked with the Missouri Department of Transportation to install new historic route signs along state roads to mark, as closely as feasible, the Santa Fe National Historic Trail along state roads. These segments follow segments of Missouri Highway 41 from Arrow Rock west to Marshall. From Marshall the segments follow Missouri Highway 65 west to Waverly and from Waverly the segments follow Missouri Highway 24 west to Independence. These new historic route signs allow the public trail traveler to enjoy our Trail on established highways.
In 2015, the MRO Chapter worked closely with the Trails Head Chapter of OCTA to install the local tour route signs from the Upper Independence/Wayne City Landing on the Missouri River southwest to Gardner Junction Park in Kansas. Along the route historic site signs were placed at the Archibald Rice Home and Cave Spring at the Barnes Enclosure in Raytown, and the Wieduwilt Swales at 85th and Manchester in South Kansas City.
A major project in our area was the completion of the Powder Mill Bridge which crosses I-435 at Bannister Road in South Kansas City, MO. This is the longest pedestrian bridge crossing a major interstate in the United States that is solely dedicated to the National Historic Trails. The MRO Chapter has recently completed the replacement and updating of the four waysides at Gardner Junction Park and the replacement of one wayside and one new wayside at the Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop & Farm.
As we move forward in the years to come MRO is dedicated to promoting the Santa Fe National Historic Trail through new signage, education programs, and improving public awareness of the importance of this historic trail.
The MRO Chapter worked with the National Park Service to update all signage in the KCMO area to the new historic route signs. New replacement signs have been shipped to Sugar Creek, Independence, and Raytown.