The Santa Fe Trail forked into two routes as it headed south from Westport. Along the routes were campgrounds for trail travelers — to the northeast of the junction was Sapling Grove and to the southwest was a campground called Flat Rock or Indian Creek.
Until the 1860s, these two routes out of Westport saw traffic from Santa Fe traders, Oregon- and California-bound emigrants, mountain men, missionaries, gold seekers, and the frontier military. Even the frontier stagecoach of the early 1860s rumbled through this trail junction heading southwest.