Shade's Well

In 1888 the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway, just finished to Liberal, Kansas, built a spur to a point seven miles southwest of Liberal and about three miles inside the Public Land Strip, with pens, loading chutes and the Shade's Well watering ground. A Kansas settlement called Tyrone moved its post office south to the pens in May 1892, and through the 1890s the place shipped herds from five states and territories. When the Rock Island extended its line in 1901, a new Tyrone grew at the tracks.

What the plaque says

Shade's Well Site two miles south From this famous well, cattlemen watered their herds of thousands of stock while waiting shipment over the Rock Island Railroad, after long trail drives to the end of the track near old Tyrone. The well was located by J. U. Shade and H. B. Fore in 1888. It was managed by Zachariah Cain to 1901 - end of cattle trail days.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mid-America Air Museum — 9.1 mi
  More than 100 aircraft in a former Beechcraft plant on the old Liberal Army Airfield, where nearly a third of all B-24 Liberator command pilots trained during World War II.

More markers nearby

• When Coronado Came to Kansas — 11 mi
• Arkalon and the Samson of the Cimarron — 23 mi
• Fargo Springs and Springfield — 25 mi