Pro- and anti-slavery forces traveled through this area on horseback and on foot during the struggle over whether Kansas would enter as a free state or a slave state, and skirmishes, scuffles, and screams were heard in the nearby woodlands. The Marias des Cygnes Massacre took place just northeast of here on May 19, 1858, when pro-slavery forces from Missouri captured 11 free-state men and killed five of them in a ravine. In December 1858, John Brown gathered 11 slaves in Missouri and brought them to Kansas as they made their way to Canada on the underground railroad, reaching Windsor, Canada, in March 1859.