There are twelve monuments like this one, throughout the United States, but only one on the Santa Fe Trail. The only one on the Santa Fe Trail is located in Council Grove, Kansas, where this photo was taken. Listed are the locations and dedication dates of the other monuments:

OHIO, Springfield July 4, 1928
WEST VIRGINIA, Wheeling July 7, 1928
KANSAS, Council Grove September 7, 1928
MISSOURI, Lexington September 24, 1928
COLORADO, Lamar September 24, 1928
NEW MEXICO, Albuquerque September 27, 1928
ARIZONA, Springerville September 29, 1928
ILLINOIS, Vandalia October 26, 1928
INDIANA, Richmond October 28, 1928
PENNSLYVANIA, Washington County December 8, 1928
CALIFORNIA, Upland February 1, 1929
MARYLAND, Bethesda week of April 19, 1929

The Kaw Nation Ride is a 50 mile endurance ride that will be conducted northeast of Council Grove, Kansas on Saturday September 13, 2008. The event would be in conjunction with the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride, taking place at the same time. This ride will be conducted by the Ride Management Team and Veterinarians of The Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride.

Entry into this ride must be made no later than July 15, 2008. Cost to enter this ride is $55.00 and no refunds. Although, if for some reason a rider is unable to attend, they may sell their entry or use the entry fee as a credit on any ride conducted by The Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Association.

For junior riders 16 years and younger, there is no charge, but they must ride with a sponsor and must be members of AERC or pay the $15.00 non-member day fee.

We have received permission from the Kaw Nation of Kaw City, Oklahoma to refer to our ride as such. This event will be going through lands historically owned by the Kaws prior to the reduction of their reservation. The Kaw Nation has agreed to have a representative of their people present the award to the winner of this event.

Approximately forty people of the Kaw Nation will be in Council Grove the weekend of September 12 & 13, 2008 for the “Voices of the Wind People” pageant.

We have been working for a couple of weeks on an agreement with NickerNetwork.com to become a sponsor of the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride. It is with great pleasure that we can announce Nicker will be the “Official Television Network” of the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride.

Nicker is the first Internet based, on-demand, multi-channel television network targeted to the horse world and an international equestrian audience. ‘Created by horse people for horse people, Nicker offers a wide selection of television channels each dedicated to a different equestrian theme or subject. Each channel provides a variety of programs and on-going series which will change and expand regularly. Viewers can 1) watch for free – with short embedded sponsor ads, 2) download individual programs to rent or buy, or 3) order customized DVDs for home delivery.’

We encourage everyone to go to www.NickerNetwork.com and see what they have to offer. (You must be on high speed Internet to get the full effect). This network was founded by Sally Lasater of California and was launched on January 15, of this year.

A little bit about the founder;
Sally Lasater, founder and Managing Director, has been involved in the horse world her entire life - as a competitor in both English and western disciplines, show and event organizer, producer of syndicated television series about horses, equestrian industry consultant to companies such as The New York Times, ConAgra and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS), published author, and a horse owner (presently only two, down from a herd of 100 or so in 1979).

In the mid-80's, Sally founded the successful and well-known Video Schoolhouse, which became the largest domestic distributor of educational and informational videos.
Covering almost 50 different categories, the 6000+ titles were presented in a catalog book published by McGraw-Hill. She was also the founder of the country's largest supplier and distributor of equestrian videos to consumers, retailers, libraries, and schools. In 1994 she created HorseNet, one of the very first Internet portal websites for the equestrian
industry. When it was sold to a public company five years later, it was one of the world's most heavily trafficked equestrian-related websites.

In the early 1970's, as co-producer of the nationally syndicated The American Horse and Horseman television series, starring Dale Robertson, Sally began the 32-year journey of making her dream of creating a television channel just for horse people a reality. As the creator of Horse TV in 2000, she succeeded in developing a successful television distribution system which for the first time enabled equestrian programming to be available in more than 25 million homes throughout the United States. She provided all of the initial horse programming to RFD- TV during its first eight months of operation, and for several years, provided up to 20 hours a week of horse programming to the America One Television Network, a national distributor of television content to independent television stations.

In 2005, Sally's company was acquired and funded by outside investors and restructured with a management team headed primarily with people from the television industry. In the spring of2007, Sally resigned from the company she had helped create, and started work on Nicker Communications.

Jim Manson, Business Director, has more than 25 years of senior level management experience in marketing, finance, education and government, including five and a half years as VP - Marketing, for Citicorp, NA (now part of Citigroup). As founder and CEO of Premier Horse Network in 1994, he is intimately familiar with the critical issues involved in creating and launching a television~ channel targeted to equestrian enthusiasts. As president of an Internet company servicing the legal community (1998 - 2001) he has been able to identify and develop important insights for understanding the rapidly changing prerequisites of establishing an industry-leading website.

Jim has founded two successful service companies (one of his start-ups was sold to Banner Industries, a Fortune 500 company). He was initially the SVP of Marketing for HorseTV Media Group, Inc. until early in 2006, when he was named Executive Director of the HorseTV Industry Council. During the year and a half he headed the Council, he successfully assembled more than 50 leading associations and organizations to be active participants in a wide range of marketing and supporting activities for The HorseTV Channel.

Jim spent the early years of his career in education and government, and for 30 years has served on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations involved in education and child welfare issues. This experience will serve Nicker Communications well in its initial development of the Center for the Preservation of Equestrian Media, as later described.

Jim is the author of "The Only Barter Book You'll Ever Need", published by Bantam Books in 1984. He received an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business and his B.A. from Columbia College.

We are very pleased the Kaw Nation of Kaw City, Oklahoma has given us the go ahead on using the title “Kaw Nation Ride” for a special sanctioned ride on Saturday September 13, 2008. Members of the Kaw Nation will be in Council Grove and have agreed to present the award to the rider with the best time. On this ride we will be going through land once owned by the Kaw Nation. For those who are not aware of this, the state of Kansas was named after the Kanza Indians, who are the Kaw Nation.

Our main contact with the Kaw Nation is Betty Durkee of Kaw City, Oklahoma. We just received original artwork of a Kanza Roach, a colorful headdress, which will be worked into the award for the best time in the Kaw Nation Ride on September 13, 2008 in Council Grove, Kansas. The Roach is used by male members of the Kaw Nation in traditional dance ceremonies. The eagle feather must be earned through some act of bravery. Note the Kaw Nation Seal as part of the Roach. In addition to this, Betty sent a hooded sweatshirt with “Kanza” on the front, as well as a baseball hat, and an embroidered bag. We are very pleased with the relationship we are building with the Kaw Nation.

This ride will be going through land once owned by the Kanza Indians. The Kaw Nation is very proud of their heritage and want it to be known.

After much consideration and talking with numerous people, both historians and horse lovers, a title for the most prestigious award to be given by the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride has been chosen; “Spirit of Comanche”. This award will be given to the horse and rider who completes all ten days in the shortest time. This will be an annual award.

The reasons for choosing the title “Spirit of Comanche Award” is as follows:

· Comanche was foaled somewhere in the Oklahoma/Texas plains, hopefully near the southern route of the Santa Fe Trail in 1862, but the exact location is unknown.

· Comanche was a mustang containing some of the bloodlines of the first horses, the Spanish Colonial horse, to travel the Santa Fe Trail.

· Comanche served with the 7th Cavalry protecting the Santa Fe Trail

· Comanche, at the time, was named after the finest horsemen in the world, the Comanche Indians.

· Comanche was the only 7th Cavalry survivor of the “Battle of Little Big Horn” in 1876.

· Comanche was found almost lifeless on the battlefield, but still had the spirit to live.

· Comanche would spend his last years in retirement at Fort Riley, Kansas. Fort Riley was built in 1851 to assist in the protection of travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.

· After his death, Comanche was taken to the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas to be stuffed by taxidermist, Lewis Lindsay Dyche, in 1891.

· Today, Comanche can be seen at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center on the fourth floor, at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Only a short fifteen miles off the Santa Fe Trail.

· Comanche has become known as “America’s Most Heroic Horse.”

The following is courtesy of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.

The Making of a Legend

On June 25, 1876, a horse from the U.S. Seventh Cavalry stood wounded amid the dead bodies of soldiers and horses in the valley of the Little Bighorn, Dakota Territory. The horse, named Comanche belonged to one of the dead soldiers, Captain Myles Keogh. General Alfred Terry and troops arrived on the scene two days later to find all that remained of the Seventh Cavalry was the seriously wounded Comanche. In addition to numerous arrow wounds, Comanche had bullet wounds through the neck, shoulder, and hindquarters. The army nursed Comanche back to health and after recovering an order was issued stating “he will not be ridden by any person whatever under any circumstances, nor will he be put to any kind work.” Over the next 15 years of his life, Comanche became the Seventh Cavalry mascot, taking part in ceremonies and parades and allowed to wander the grounds freely at Fort Riley, Kansas. Soldiers sometimes fed Comanche buckets of beer, which he enjoyed.

Comanche died November 7, 1891. He was 29 years old.

This award will be made retro-active to the 2007 Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride. Karen Fredrickson and ‘Murphy’ will be the first recipients.

Karen Fredrickson - Bio

I was born and raised in Humboldt County, California. My crew person and husband, Duane, grew up on the ranch next door. We have literally known each other all our lives. He claims one of his earliest memories of me is being lured into the corral where my sister and I pelted him with rocks. I have no recollection of such an incident and maintain my innocence. We have four children and six grandchildren.
I graduated from Oregon State University and worked as a brand inspector for that state before returning home.
Duane and I run a cow/calf operation on his home place. As the saying goes behind every successful rancher is a woman who works in town, and I spent 20 years working as a probation officer for Humboldt County. The bulk of my career was spent supervising adult felons or the officers who supervised them. I retired from the Humboldt County Probation Department as the Director of Probation Services.
I began riding endurance in 1992. I asked my friend and trainer, Elaine Kerrigan, what it took to do endurance and she told me a 5-year-old horse. So I took my six-year-old Anglo Arab mare and hit the trail. I now have 8,500 + AERC miles, most of which are pioneer miles.
Duane has crewed every mile for me. He is the consummate Crew. He knows and likes horses, can parallel park a truck and trailer, and carries his toolbox wherever he goes. He can and has fixed everything on the trail. On the XP 01, he put a new axle under a trailer and I have seen him replace brakes. He can light hot water heaters and rewire trailer brakes. All in all, a very handy guy to have around.
My horses for the SFT are MRR Pyro, AKA: Murphy, and Trahig Fahim, AKA: Trig. Murphy is an eleven-year-old Arab gelding and a proven multi-day horse. He carried me on both the XP 01 and 04. In his career, Murphy has completed 20 pioneer rides and been Best Overall Condition 8 times. Murphy has been ranked nationally in the Pioneer standing three years in a row. In 2006, Murphy was ranked first lightweight in the Pioneer standing and was sixth place in national mileage. He has been ranked in the West Regional standings for the past four years. Last year he was first in the Light Weight division and first overall. He was also second best condition. Murphy has 5,855 AERC miles to his credit.
Trig, on the other hand, is a neophyte. He is a 6-year-old Arab gelding and his experience has been working on the ranch and a little camping here and there. Trig is all black and stands 16 hands tall. He has a nice ground covering trot and good recoveries.

(Pictured above is Karen and Murphy at the end of Day One of the 2007 Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride. Photo taken by Maggi Rankin).

As of the end of 2007, Karen has logged 9735 miles. In 2007 she rode 1640, the most she ever rode in one year. Murphy has 6875 miles as of the end of 2007.

Comanche has been at the University of Kansas now for 117 years and is on permanent display. Rob Phillips visited the famous horse on February 5, 2008 and talked with the museum staff. Below is a picture of Rob with Comanche.

- Team of 2 Riders
The teams must have the same two riders for the entire ten days of riding. (No rider substitution.)

The top time will be the team score. Example, assume the times for the two riders on Day 1 are:
Sam – 5hrs 26 min
Sally – 6hrs 30 min

Sally’s time would be knocked out and the team time for the day would be 5 hours and 26 minutes. Sally would still get credit for finishing and riding the 50 miles.

But assume the times for Day 2 were:
Sam - Pulled, lameness
Sally - Pulled, lameness
The time for Day 2 would be 24 hours. Riders pulled would receive a time of 24 hours. Pulled riders would receive no other credit.

A team must start at least one rider each day. If all two riders were pulled, the team’s time would be 24 hours.

Riders pulled for over-riding their horse or not having control of their horse at the finish line, will receive a ‘No time’.

No team member substitution after August 31, 2008.

No horse substitution after August 31, 2008.

Each team may have up to six horses. All six horses must be checked in at the beginning of the ride, and must remain with the team for the duration of the ride. If a horse leaves the ride, it cannot be used again during the ride.