Last Chance Store

Travelers along the Santa Fe Trail had one final chance to purchase necessary supplies before starting a long stretch of the 625-mile trek to Santa Fe, New Mexico here, at the aptly named Last Chance Store in Council Grove. Built in 1857 at its critical location by Tom Hilll, this is one of the first stores ever built in the area and the oldest surviving commercial building in town. In addition to servicing travelers along the Santa Fe trail, the shop also provided Kaw Indians from the nearby reservation a place to trade buffalo robes, deer and wolf skins, and other pelts for manufactured products. Later, this building was home to a post office, a government trading house, a polling place on at least one occasion, and, eventually, a display house for its owner's antiques. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 for its importance along the Santa Fe Trail and in the history of early Council Grove and Morris County. In 2015, it was donated to the Kansas Historical Society, which planned to restore it and convert it into an interpretive center for the Santa Fe Trail.

This building was built by one of the earliest settlers in the Council Grove area after it was opened for settlement under the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Tom Hill arrived here in 1857 and immediately began making his living selling supplies to travelers heading west along the Santa Fe Trail. For his operations, Hill constructed a simple, one-story, one-room building out of rough, locally quarried limestone on the western end of Main Street. His store became known as the Last Chance Store because this was the last opportunity for travelers to purchase essential supplies before setting out on the remainder of the 625-mile trek to Santa Fe, a trip that took around two more months.

Understandably, as long as the Santa Fe Trail welcomed travelers, Hill's business thrived. He also welcomed Native Americans from the nearby reservation, who could come here to trade skins and pelts for manufactured and processed goods. However, he began to struggle as traffic through Council Grove dropped, especially after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad expanded its service west. Although the AT&SF followed much of the same route the trail had, Council Grove, the historic "last chance" stop, was not chosen as a depot. Instead, Emporia and Cottonwood Falls welcomed most passenger traffic, and those who did not stop there waited until they were further west to disembark. The town reconnected later to other rail lines and prospered agriculturally, but much of its commercial importance as a supplier on the Santa Fe Trail had ended by the mid-1870s.

When Hill's store closed, it was initially repurposed into a post office building. Later, it was a government trading house, and in 1858, it served as a polling place when citizens voted on the Lecompton Constitution. Over the years, it has also served as a "trading post, residence...refuge for enslaved people, grocery store, corn crib, loan association building, antique store, and storehouse. For many years, it sat empty and received little maintenance, although it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 for its importance in the history of the Santa Fe Trail, Council Grove, and its Frontier Prairie Vernacular architectural style. Only more recently did it get more much-needed attention. When Connie and Don Essington donated the building to the Kansas Historical Society in 2015, the KSHS Cultural Resources Division spent much of the following years exploring the building's archeological significance. The KSHS also discussed plans to convert the building into an interpretive center for the Santa Fe Trail, with the initial opening date anticipated to be in the spring of 2017.

Hall, Charles L. and Richard Pankratz. Last Chance Store - National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form, National Parks Gallery. November 24th, 1970. Accessed February 13th, 2024. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/54eaab7e-1701-400f-85de-f1f578e85ef3.

Last Chance Store - About, Travel Kansas. Accessed February 13th, 2024. https://www.travelks.com/listing/last-chance-store/560/.

Rangler, Katrina. New Chances for the Last Chance Store-Council Grove, Kansas, National Park Service. June 1st, 2016. Accessed February 13th, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/articles/new-chances-for-the-last-chance-store-council-grove-kansas.htm.

Last Chance Store, SAH Archipedia. Accessed February 13th, 2024. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/KS-01-127-0009.

Railroads in Lyon County, The Emporia Gazette. March 6th, 2010. Accessed February 13th, 2024. https://www.emporiagazette.com/news/article_7f0207ef-bd32-523a-a763-0186847a3cf9.html.