Ten Top Reasons You Might Want to Visit a Cemetery in Gove County

10. To trace your family’s history.
9. To take rubbings of tombstones of ancestors and others.
8. To scare your kids.
7. To see the graves of soldiers and pioneers.
6. To research the families who settled here.
5. To look at the wildflowers and other native plants in the solitude of mother
nature.
4. To check out where you can hold your next Halloween Party.
3. To watch the deer and antelope play.
2. To test your Onstar/GPS to make sure it works.
1. To “experience” Gove County: its small towns and its wide-open prairies.

Gove County is more than our two national historical sites: Castle Rock in the southeastern part and Monument Rocks/the Pyramids in the southwest. You will be passing near Castle Rock on Tour 2 and between the Monument Rocks on Tour 4.

You will also see B.O.D. (Butterfield Overland Dispatch stagecoach route) historical markers on Tours 3 and 4. The Butterfield Overland Dispatch was a stage line that ran along the Smoky Hill River across Kansas to Denver before the Kansas Pacific Railroad was completed. That railroad still runs along the northern boundary of Gove County, and you will cross it several times on two of our tours. The marker will say 1865 for the date of the trail. An excellent resource is for more information of the B.O.D. is a book called The Smoky Hill Valley and the Butterfield Trail by Larry Linville.

This route was also used by wagon trains and was called the Smoky Hill Trail. There is an excellent book of paintings by Thomas Lane Curry of all of the stops on the trail that was published by the Colby Community College called The Smoky Hill Trail with a narrative by Betty Radcliffe Jackson. Mr. Linville wrote Visiting Historic Sites on the Central Hi-Plains and Up the Smoky Hill Trail in 1867 with an Ox Drawn Wagon Trail, two excellent resources about this area. The Army also used this route to travel between the forts established at Hays to the east and at Wallace to the west. Both can be visited today. Near the Monument Rocks was an army outpost. We are proud to say that our county played an important role in the settlement of the High Plains.

This site was researched and written by the 7th Grade Students of Grinnell Middle School, in the Spring of 2005 as a cross curriculum assignment in their Kansas History and Keyboarding classes.

The Freshman Class of Grinnell High School designed the Web Site.

Project Advisors:
Lynette Wolf – Grinnell Public Schools Media Specialist, Web Coordinator,
and Gove County Genweb Co-coordinator
Cheryl Huelsman – Grinnell Public Schools Computer Instructor and Web Coordinator
Judy Hart – Grinnell Public Schools Kansas History Instructor and Research Coordinator

To obtain genealogical information about these cemeteries, visit this site https://usgenwebsites.org/KSGove/cemetery/index.html

We suggest you experience our county by taking one or all of the four following self-guided driving tours.

Important map information: The roads in Gove County are numbered this way: east and west, letters of the alphabet (from the south to north, A to EE); north and south, numbers (from west to east, 10 to 82, even numbers only).

Caution: If it is muddy or rain looks imminent, do not attempt to visit the cemeteries off-highway. The cemeteries marked with an * will require a 4-wheel drive even when the roads are dry. To access these, you will have to cross plowed fields or pastures which are private property. Please respect the landowners and do not drive across their fields other than by the most direct route/path. A ** indicates you will be driving though open range. Watch out for cattle on the road. They have the right-of-way. Thank you.

SCROLL DOWN TO LOOK AT THE GOVE COUNTY MAP BELOW TO SEE WHERE ALL 16 GOVE COUNTY CEMETERIES ARE APPROXIMATELY LOCATED.

TO GET DRIVING DIRECTIONS FOR EACH TOUR OF 4 CEMETERIES, CLICK ON THE FIRST CEMETERY IN EACH TOUR BELOW. WE SUGGEST YOU FOLLOW THE ORDER GIVEN.

Tour 1 Grainfield Township West Park Park Catholic Baker Township (Quinter)	Tour 2 Old German Baptist Red Top Morning Star Alanthus*
Tour 3 Grinnell Township Immaculate Conception Gove City Swedish Evangelical Lutheran*	Tour 4 Zion Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Kelly or Union* Gaeland Township Pyramid View**
* will require a 4-wheel drive	** indicates you will be driving though open range

Gove County Cemeteries

Have a great experience!!!!!!!