Marais Des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site
From U.S. 69, ¾ mile east on K-52, 1 mile north on Wakefield, 2½ miles east on 1700, then ¾ mile north and west on a gravel road. Take the first left into the park and continue past the 1860s stone house to the massacre site and historical marker at the ravine. Twelve historical markers guide you through this unattended site and recount the massacre. On May 19, 1858, proslavery border ruffians rounded up 11 local free-state men, marched them to this ravine, and opened fire. Six men were killed and five were wounded. Soon after the massacre, John Brown built a short-lived fort on the site, and in December that same year, in an act of retaliation, he went into Missouri to free 11 slaves. The massacre focused the nation’s eye on Bleeding Kansas, the sobriquet applied to Kansas Territory during the Missouri border wars over the slavery issue.