Alcove Spring got its name in 1846, when the Donner-Reed Party was forced to stop at the spot to wait for the Big Blue River to go down, from May 26 to May 31.  One of the members of the party, Edwin Bryant, found and named the Alcove Spring site.

During their stay, however, the mother-in-law of party co-leader James F. Reed, Sarah H. Keyes (pictured above), passed away on May 29.  The original gravesite has been lost, but a monument was dedicated to her in 1950 by the Arthur Barrett Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Alcove Spring Today

Alcove Spring was the first Marshall County property entered on the National Register of Historic Places.   The site is on a privately owned pasture, and had been open to the public until the 1970's, when public access was denied.  In March 1993, however, the Blue Rapids Chamber of Commerce leased five acres at the site and reopened Alcove Spring.  A year later a newly formed local trust, the Alcove Spring Historical Trust, bought 233 acres, which included Alcove Spring.  Another organization, the Alcove Spring Preservation Association, plans events at the site and is working with the Kansas State Historical Society to preserve Alcove Spring and interpert the story of the site.

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*All Information Provided By The Alcove Spring Preservation Association*