Between Lawrence and Topeka, the Kansas turnpike passes near the route of the old Oregon-California Trail, traveled in the 1800s by explorers, missionaries, soldiers, emigrants seeking land, and forty-niners seeking gold. Fifteen miles south lay the Santa Fe Trail, which for more than 50 years served mainly as a trail of trade and commerce. From the Missouri River it was some 2,000 miles to Oregon and California and around 800 to Santa Fe, along trails established centuries earlier by Native Americans. Tribes living in this area during the 1800s included the Delaware, Kaw, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Wyandot. After its establishment in 1854, Lawrence often served as a stopping place for travelers. The town became famous as a free-state headquarters in the territorial struggle over slavery, and some prominent citizens helped transport slaves to freedom along the underground railroad. Proslavery men struck back in 1856 by sacking the town and destroying the newspaper office. Lawrence faced its greatest trial in 1863 when Confederate guerrillas led by William C. Quantrill burned the town and killed more than 150 men and boys. The town soon rebuilt and became home to the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University.