Smoky Hill Trail

The toll the bronze names had faces in 1859. Daniel, Alexander and Charles Blue left Illinois for the gold fields that winter, took the Smoky Hill route on bad advice, and ran out of food on the plains of western Kansas. Alexander and Charles died; Daniel survived by eating their bodies, was found by Indians and brought into Denver that May. His dictated account gave the road the name Starvation Trail and emptied it for a time. The plaque is set into the Pioneer Monument of 1911, at the trail's end.

What the plaque says

This tablet is the property of the State of Colorado Here was the end of the famous Smoky Hill Trail immigrant and stage road extending from the Missouri River to Denver. Traversed by pioneers in 1858. Surveyed by W. G. Russell in 1860. Route of Butterfield's Overland Despatch and Wells-Fargo Express. The trail took its human toll- death by thirst and Indian raids. Placed by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the City and County of Denver 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado State Capitol — steps away
  A capitol of Colorado granite, marble, onyx and gold, with three different steps claiming to stand exactly a mile high.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge — 7.7 mi
  Mustard gas, nerve agent and pesticides for forty years, then bald eagles, bison and black-footed ferrets on the same ground.
• Dinosaur Ridge — 11 mi
  A hogback near Morrison with the bones of 1877 on one flank and the footprints a road crew blasted open in 1937 on the other.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre — 13 mi
  Walker's Garden of the Titans, finished by the CCC between Ship Rock and Creation Rock and dedicated on June 15, 1941.

More markers nearby

• Passing of the Street Car — steps away
• Sand Creek Massacre — steps away
• Silas S. Soule — 0.7 mi
• The Rocky Mountain News — 0.9 mi