Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm
Historic Site is a finalist for the 8 Wonders of Kansas History because the
original 1865 limestone farmhouse is the only working stagecoach stop left on
the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.
Where
better to experience life on the Kansas frontier than at the only
working stagecoach stop left on the Santa
Fe Trail?
In 1857, James "Beatty" Mahaffie, his wife Lucinda, and their
children arrived from Indiana
in the promising new settlement of Olathe, Kansas. It was an
age of opportunity on the frontier. It was also a time of uncertainty and
danger as pro-slavery and anti-slavery guerilla forces made the Kansas/Missouri
border their battleground in the years before the actual Civil War began.
Beatty
Mahaffie chose an ideal location for his new farm and his business interests,
just a mile out of town and directly on the Santa Fe Trail. Almost immediately,
Beatty and Lucinda started providing meals to travelers. In 1865, they built
the limestone farmhouse that still stands today, outfitted to serve travelers
and stagecoach passengers.
Visitors
can discover that same farmhouse with its unique dining hall and kitchen as
they walk in the footsteps of Santa Fe,
Oregon, and California
trail travelers who stopped at the Mahaffie farm. Depending on the day of week
and time of year, they can ride a real stagecoach, visit the blacksmith, sample
something good from the wood-burning cookstove, or help with the farm chores
that revolve with the seasons and include planting, cultivating, and harvesting
our gardens and fields. Along with the 1865 farmhouse, other original buildings
to explore include an ice house and one of the Mahaffie barns. A reconstructed
smokehouse, summer kitchen, and blacksmith shop make up the rest of the farm,
which is also home to horses, oxen, chickens, goats, and sheep just as it was
in the Mahaffies' day.
VISITOR CENTER
A new
visitor center built in 2008 and open year-round, houses a gift shop and
visitor amenities along with exhibits and interactive videos telling the
stories of the Mahaffie family, stagecoach travel, the western trails, and the
Border War/Civil War era in Kansas.
LIVING HISTORY PROGRAMS
Complementing
April to October stagecoach operations, our living history programming
recreates life on a 19th century farm to engage our visitors on an almost
year-round basis. Activities range from Winter weekends focused on chores like
processing a hog and making sausage, to cutting our wheat crop with a late
1860s reaper in the Summer, to picking our corn crop in the Fall. The
unexpected snowfalls this season even let us offer horse-drawn sled rides. Our
visitors are welcomed to get involved, safely, in most of these tasks. Many of
our young visitors find themselves mixing dough or washing dishes in the
farmhouse kitchen, and our Open Late, 6-8 p.m. summer Thursday nights make
these activities available to audiences who cannot visit us in the daytime
hours.
OWNERSHIP
Mahaffie
Historic Site is owned by the City of Olathe
and administered through its Department of Parks and Recreation. The
City
acquired the site in the late 1970s, and successfully nominated the farm
to the
National Register of Historic Places. In more recent years, the site was
also
designated an official component of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail
by the
National Park Service.The Mahaffie
Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit, advocates for the site and supports programming
and preservation efforts. Our new visitor center (Mahaffie Heritage Center) is also home to our partner
organization, the Olathe Historical Society.
Mahaffie is open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.;
Sunday 12-4 p.m, year round.
Admission charge is $3 adults; $2 children in the
winter, and weekdays, Spring and Fall. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for
children on Spring and Fall weekends and daily in the Summer -- at which times
the stagecoach is operating and the living history program is in
operation.
Photos courtesy Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead
Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm
Historic Site is a finalist for the 8 Wonders of Kansas History because the
original 1865 limestone farmhouse is the only working stagecoach stop left on
the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.
Visitors
can discover that same farmhouse with its unique dining hall and kitchen as
they walk in the footsteps of 
VISITOR CENTER
LIVING HISTORY PROGRAMS