Thanks for the feedback. Isn't this technology great in how it adds an entirely new dimension to our research? Ever wonder what lay in that wooded area down the way and wanted to find out without trespassing? This google earth tells the tale. In the google image of the farm I live on I can determine pretty much the exact week the satellite image was taken last year based on a vehicle I had parked by the barn but had moved into the shop to work on it.

Back to the subject.... I also noticed that the site of the old church was south of the property indicated as being owned by a Warder in the 1897 plat. The discrepancy did not concern me given that the plat was dated 35 years after the skirmish. The Warders could have owned the site at the time the church was built; or perhaps a Warder was the pastor at the church, or financed its construction. In any event, while the site may be far off of the beaten path in today's era, back then it was undoubtedly located along a public roadway as indicated by the 1877 atlas. For the curious, go to that satellite image link I posted earlier, and zoom out. You can see the old road track under discussion going to the southwest that disappears when it reaches the creek. Then view on further to the southwest in the zoom-out and you can see where it connected into the east-west road that linked to the north-south road coming out of Wellington. Where that old road went through, it has long since been plowed over and has disappeared from view.

And John, your analysis regarding the rectangular sites certainly bears strong consideration. Could be they are foundations. Perhaps the landowners have no idea of the history of their place, or that an old building foundation on their ground is perhaps that of an old church; or perhaps the landowners are reluctant to have students of history descending upon their place. Be that as it may, there is little doubt in my mind that the surrounding area there was where this unheralded skirmish took place.

I live on the Kansas High Plains a couple miles from the site of a pretty major but very very little-written about 1867 Indian battle involving Roman Nose, Satanta, Charley Bent, the Buffalo Soldiers, state militia and the 7th Cavalry. A couple hundred bluecoats fought off several thousand Indians in a three-day battle. And a lot of spent brass from Spencer repeating carbines has been found. As luck would have it that landowner is very much into history and doesn't mind me traipsing over the site, and even joining me, after he has plowed it in preparation for planting. Reading through dusty first person accounts of the fight and comparing references in those accounts with this fairly recent advent of very readily-accessible satellite imagery, I am able to search for more possible sites to investigate along the far-flung field of battle.

This same technology has been used with great success recently in finding ancient semi-mythological city sites in African and Arabian deserts and certainly can be put to good use in our own back yards. You can investigate hundreds of square miles looking for landmarks and reference points in seconds and on the cheap with just a click of a mouse, instead of spending days or weeks or months driving around an area getting a very limited grounds-eye view and spending big dollars on gas and motels. I think this technology is really going to help us flesh out the where and the what in regard to a lot of battlefields, especially the hundreds of obscure sites in Missouri.

Steve, please let us know if you ever get a chance to investigate those possible foundations, or the rest of the area. Be great to hear whether this satellite-image aided search paid any dividends.