Created in 1837, the Fort Leavenworth Military Road originally ran from Fort Leavenworth south to Fort Gibson in Oklahoma. It formed part of the route Congress had designated as the border line of the "permanent Indian Frontier," extending as far north as Fort Snelling in Minnesota and as far south as Fort Towson in Oklahoma. After Fort Scott was built by 1842, infantry and dragoon troops moved regularly on this road between it and Fort Leavenworth for the next several decades. By way of the Gum Springs cut-off through modern-day Shawnee and Lenexa, soldiers from the fort used this road to reach the Santa Fe Trail in Johnson County. In the 1830's, military escorts for Santa Fe traders' caravans traveled this way, and in 1846-1848 the road carried soldiers bound for the Mexican War. Though it faded from memory after the Civil War, for more than thirty years it served as an important route for frontier military forces and other travelers.