The Lane Trail
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 39° 50.505 W 095° 47.160
15S E 261622 N 4413907
History of Plymouth and Lexington, towns that once stood here.
Waymark Code: WM38KW
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 02/26/2008
Views: 29
Marker Erected By: Kansas Historical Society and Kansas Department of Transportation.
Marker Location: Rest Area, 2 miles W. of Jct. US-36 & US-75.
Marker Text:
Near here the towns of Plymouth and Lexington once stood as outposts on the Lane Trail, approximated today by US-75. Named for abolitionist James H. Lane, the trail was established in 1856 to bypass proslavery strongholds in Missouri and provide free-state settlers a safe route into Kansas. Rock piles known as "Lane's chimneys" marked the trail. Leaving Iowa City, settlers went west into Nebraska and south into Kansas, passing through Plymouth, Lexington, Powhattan, Netawaka, and Holton before arriving in Topeka. The trail also served as part of the underground railroad, used by John Brown and others to transport slaves north to freedom.
At Plymouth, three miles south of the Nebraska line, and at Lexington, a few miles farther south, the settlers built log cabins surrounded by earthen~walled forts for protection. Armed with rifles and bolstered by a small cannon at Plymouth, the settlers established an antislavery presence that helped bring "Bleeding Kansas" into the Union as a free state. Today, however, Plymouth and Lexington exist only as a memory.