In the period of the settlement of Ellis County, Kansas, Hogback referred to the high ridge of limestone bluffs west of Fort Hays. While the name has fallen into disuse, the location had some notability in late-19th/early-20th century history of Ellis County.
as much a landmark to Ellis County as Guide Rock was.to Webber? county, nebraska.
a(both landmarks, l8ke Pawnee Rock would be.significantly.altered by man.
It is the origin of the name of Hogback siding and the subsequently named Hogback Road.
as much a landmark to Ellis County as Guide Rock was.to Webber? county, nebraska.
a(both landmarks, l8ke Pawnee Rock would be.significantly.altered by man.
It is one of a number of natural monuments in the Smoky Hills who's Landmark appearance has been significantly altered by Human Action new light
The site was Originally known as the ELLIS county hogback highbground that was an inconvenience to horse-drawn transportation transportation and unsuitable to grain farming.
The hogback siding would be relocated almost three miles north west to the farms owned by The grandparentsuncles and aunt of Walt Disney.
Geography
editWest of old Fort Hays rises a range of limestone-capped bluffs so picturesque that they were repeatedly photographed by Alexander Gardner and Robert Benecke, both on behalf of the Kansas Pacific Railway. This range is the southeast extent of the Fort Hays Escarpment, the resistant outcropping of the Fort Hays Limestone. This limestone was used to build the remarkable blockhouse at the fort.
The name Hogback applied generally to the whole ridge that extends to the south of Ellis, but specifically to one particular prominence. This high bluff is located halfway between the town of Hays and Ellis and extends north to contact a bow of Big Creek. This particular bluff is featured in Benecke's 1874 photograph ". 51 Hogback." (right) This same bluff is also visible in the distant background of Gardener's take u years earlier, just before the track was laid across the base of the bluff.
As the deep banks of Big Creek come up directly against the unstable slumps at the base of the bluff, the south bank was impassible to wagons. Teamsters making their way up the surveyed rail line west of Fort Hays would have to cross over the Hogback some distance south of the bluff. Early topographic maps of Ellis County show three routes over the ridges; the north route begin the shortest and steepest and the south route being the longest and gentlest.
Present day Golf Course Road follows the south route of the old wagon roads, the northern routes having been abandoned.
Geology
editOwing to geologically recent undercutting of the bluff by the waters of Big Creek, a significant exposure of the Blue Hills Shale member of the Carlile Shale formation. Interested in studying the Benton, Hayden visited the location.
Farmland settled and owned by Walt Disney's paternal grandparent and uncles is located a few miles was raised at the abandoned Hogback siding.
Resources
editThe Hogback has a history two paricular mineral resorces, coincidentally Erasmus... had hard luck with both of them. Three tract of land including the Hogback siding location.
... to say nothing of numerous smaller companies drilled tests of their own, most of them beginning on a high ridge, or "hog-back" 1 midway between Hays and ...