Kit Carson (1869, 4,285 feet), named for the western scout and guide, began as a Kansas Pacific railroad settlement with a large number of tents and dugouts. The original (1869) town stood three miles west of the present site on the banks of Sand Creek. The track and the town moved here in 1882. North of town in open prairie is the Old Trail Monument (1954, Gerald Maydew), commemorating the Smoky Hill Trail. Built 34 feet high of 110 tons of local fieldstone, it resembles the fireplace and chimney of a burned-out house with a wagon wheel cemented into the pyramidal top.
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