On May 19, 1858, about 30 pro-slavery men gunned down 11 free-state men in a ravine near Trading Post, Kansas. Lining up their prisoners, they callously shot them down, killing five and wounding five others. One escaped injury by feigning death. Northerners were horrified, and John Greenleaf Whittier immortalized the fallen in a poem, "Le Marais du Cygne."

The park is about six miles north of Pleasanton, Kansas, on US 69 and then three miles east on KS 52. You can learn more about this out-of-the-way site by visiting the Kansas State Historical Society web site.