In the geography books of the 17th and 18th centuries, Kansas
was labeled the “Great American Desert.” Coronado may have
stepped foot on Stafford County soil when he explored northward
from Mexico in 1541. (Or he may not have … but we like to think
he at least saw us from the top of Pawnee Rock!) County was
within the area of the Louisiana Purchase made in 1803 from
France by Pres. Thomas Jefferson. The following year, Lewis and
Clark started on their famed expedition going west across the
“desert” plains. Caravans of covered wagons followed in their
footsteps and settlements developed around the way stations,
trading posts and mission headquarters. the southwest territory
became a part of the United States and in 1854 Congress created
the territory map of Kansas, published by the Wichita Beacon,
indicates Kiowa Indian Chief, Satanta, known as the “Terror of
the Santa Fe Trail,” used the Stafford County area as his base
of operations. at the close of the Civil War, what would later
become Stafford County was