Giving the slip to a couple of days, just at sunset on the second, we descended a precipitous declivity to a place of which nothing remained but the name Elm Grove, and one solitary logan of a stricken tree ‘To mark where an Elm grove had been.’ A beautiful rivulet bubbled forth from the base of the hill, and as we wound our way down, we spied a single campfire… of an old Mexican hunter.
--- Richard L. Wilson, 1841
Elm Grove Campground (also known as Caravan Grove)
Private
land near Cedar Creek bridge on Old Highway 56 - Olathe, KS
George Sibley surveyed the Elm Grove campsite in an effort to find a shorter route through the region. Travelers, and later trails scholars, often confused it with the Lone Elm campsite, located 2.25 miles to the south on the same creek.
Research by Johnson County resident Craig Crease documented the existence of these two distinct campsites by comparing mileage and diary entries. An Oregon-California Trails Association marker at 151st Street and Old Highway 56 commemorates Elm Grove.
| 1 | Shawnee Indian Agency | 7 | Elm Grove |
| 2 | Harmon Park | 8 | Lone Elm |
| 3 | Shawnee Methodist Mission | 9 | Trail Junction & Bull Creek |
| 4 | Boones Fork | 10 | Captain's Creek |
| 5 | Sapling Grove | 11 | Onward |
| 6 | Flat Rock Creek | 12 | Acknowledgements |