Part 1
Chingawasa was probably roaming the Happy Hunting Grounds
in 1889 when the enterprising idea for a health spa, named after
the "Handsome Bird" Kaw chief, gained steam in Marion County,
Kansas. Sixty-three years earlier, his signature was recorded
(with an X) on the 1825 Treaty with the Osage, so it is unlikely the
good chief was still alive. However, his spirit may have foreseen
what was to follow as just another in a string of White Man's
follies.
According to legend, Chingawasa and his tribe made many
pilgrimages to the Springs in the early part of the 19th century. A
mixture of Indian legend and history was also a lore of Waconda
Springs near Glen Elder. There, a similar white man's medical
enterprise was being built on the curative miracle waters burbling
out of a "bottomless pit".
Central to the 1889 public relations campaign forged by Marion
city and county promoters was constructing a rail line to and from
the Springs. Although picnickers and campers had been going to
the area for decades, visitors used a half day just getting there.
So, the promise of "rapid transit" finally sold citizens on the
project, once and for all.
But Kansas' first excursion train would not be limited to tourism.
Once established, the rail line could be used to haul rock from a
nearby quarry to Marion. There, stone-laden cars would be
transferred to the Rock Island or Santa Fe main lines. The
limestone, enthused one newspaper account, was "unsurpassed
in the State for building...and its fame has already made extensive
demands for it east and west". It was all a great plan spelling
success for Marion, Kansas and swelling the coffers of all
concerned.
Newsmen from Marion all the way east to Topeka and Kansas
City wrote unabashedly about the Chingawasa Springs project
and building expansion. "The water is strongly impregnated with
sulphur and other minerals, and possesses healing properties,
which have been test in successful treatment of rheumatism and
kidney diseases...Marion will be known as the popular health
resort of the west...when visitors are pouring in...seeking health
and rest from the heated and busy cities" and see "the beautiful
and romantic-looking park though which winds the sparkling
waters of Clear Creek...where the springs are so pure and clear
that a newspaper lying at the bottom...can be read with perfect
clarity," and so forth.
Citizens of Marion and Marion County must have been swept
away by the florid prose and lofty promise of money pouring in.
They forked over $16,000 to help pay the $45,000 tab for the rail
line, one motor car and two passenger coaches. In 1889, the
Kansas Corporation Commission officially sanctioned the Marion
Belt and Chingawasa Railroad.
Chingawasa saw a cloud of economic recession darkening
White Man's prospects. Knowing in his day many Kansas
summers, Chingawasa doubted the spending public's
enduring love affair with a remote and, often hostile 25 acre
stretch of prairie-healing waters or not.
The boom, never realized, and bust, fully felt-to the ruination of
several Marion entrepreneurs-took only a few swift years. In
1902, the Kansas Corporation Commission recorded the
Marion Belt and Chingawasa Railroad as being abandoned.
Thirteen years from start to fizzle to finish.
A vague reference to the limestone quarry in the Marion Record
states that "its potential was never fully realized". Eventually the
railroad tracks were taken up. The motor car called a "steam
dummy," may have ended its run on a scrap heap, and the two
passenger cars had already moved on to assume
ever-declining service as a trolley, diner, snack shop, and
chicken coop.
Duclos Foundation, the one remaining original Chingawasa
passenger coach was delivered to Concordia. The trip north
was the car's first venture beyond Marion County in 116 years.
Now, property of the National Orphan Train Complex, "The
Legend", as it has been named, will be historically restored
and preserved. According to several national railroad car
historians, The Legend is one of the few remaining wooden
passenger coaches of its kind in existence.
Hopefully, it has survived to see better times as a major
compliment to the restored Union Pacific depot and Orphan
Train Complex.