Alcove Spring Park preserves more than 200 acres of native prairie and timber land at a historic camping ground on the Oregon-California Trail. Alcove Spring became a favored camping and resting area for westward-bound emigrants beginning in the early 19th century. One of the first known emigrant groups to cross the Blue River at Independence Crossing was the Bidwell-Bartelson party in 1841, and a member of that party, Nancy Kelsey, is believed to be the first white woman to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is believed that Marcus and Narcissa Whitman stopped here on their way to Washington in the 1830's. In 1842, John Charles Fremont passed through on his second expedition west with Kit Carson, and initials carved near the spring may be his. In 1843, westward migration began to explode, and over the next 25 years more than 1/4 million people headed west, many along the Oregon-California Trail, passing through this area. In May 1846, the Donner-Reed party camped here for five days while waiting for flooding on the Big Blue River to subside. During that stay, Sarah Keyes, the mother-in-law of leader James Reed, died and was buried here, though the exact gravesite has been lost over time. The party eventually built a raft to float wagons across the flooding Blue and continue west, but after other delays failed to beat a blizzard across the Sierra Nevada Mountains by one day, and during the following winter nearly half the party perished from cold and malnutrition near what is now known as Donner Pass. Edwin Bryant, a member of the Donner-Reed party, coined the name Alcove Spring, and George McKinstry carved the name into the rocks above the spring on May 30, 1846; several other party members, including James Reed, also engraved their names, and some of those pioneer carvings still remain in the limestone. The waterfall beside the spring was named Naomi Pike Falls after the expedition's youngest member. The spring has never been known to go dry, though water flows over the falls only intermittently. In the time of westward migration, the surrounding meadows were dominated by tall grasses such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass, with wildflowers blooming from early spring through summer, while deer, coyotes, quail, wild turkeys, and other birds and animals were commonly found here. Before settlers arrived, the region was mostly without trees except along larger streams, so many pioneers crossing this area would have seen miles of tall prairie grass and few or no trees. Several travelers reportedly died and were buried nearby, and a Mormon cemetery somewhere on the property contains graves of cholera victims, though its location has also been lost. The property remained privately owned until 1993, when it was purchased by the non-profit Alcove Spring Historical Trust, and more than 220 acres are now available for public enjoyment and historical preservation. Alcove Spring was the first property in Marshall County entered on the National Register of Historic Places, is a certified Historic Site on the Oregon National Historic Trail, and is one of the 8 Geographic Wonders of Kansas.