Oregon Trail Marker

The bronze medallion of this marker, 16.5 inches in diameter, bears the image of a conestoga wagon pulled by oxen and guided by a pioneer.

The work of sculptors J.E. and L.G. Fraser, it is mounted outside Lindley Hall on a limestone plinth about 4 feet tall and nearly 6 feet long. The whole is surrounded by a low ovoid stone wall; plantings and a flagpole complete the marker.

It was presented by the American Pioneer Trails Association to commemorate one of the sites on the ridge of Mount Oread that the California-Oregon Trail crossed in the 1840s and 1850s. The marker, dedicated April 17, 1954, was a gift of Howard and Margaret Brazier Driggs; he was president of the trail association, and she was a 1930 alumna.

A plaque that was a gift of the Class of 1916 bears a quote from "Across the Years on Mount Oread," a 1941 history by Robert Taft, a longtime KU chemistry professor.