Before the white man and the French fur traders, the Native Americans called it Brave River. They said "you had to be brave to live there." It might have been the weather and floods. Perhaps it was the great Indian battle between the Potawatomi and Cheyenne. A young Indian woman told of the battle at the July 4th Celebration at St. Marys in the 1850s. She said, "the river ran red with the blood of those that were slain." The oldest maps show it as Vermeil, which is the French word for red-orange, the color of blood. Mapmakers changed the name to the Red Vermillion. Current road signs call it Vermillion.
In the 1970s, archeologists from the Smithsonian walked the valley and determined the area where Brave River Ranch lies had been a Native American campsite for thousands of years.
In the 1930s Linda's parents bough the land, and in time it became a large farm-ranch. Her father raised horses and cattle. And the U.S. Calvary buyer from Fort Riley came and purchased horses from him.
Horses have been a part of this lands history for a long time.
Read a letter to Linda from Marguerite Henry
For an appointment, call (785) 889-4800 or e-mail lsprice@bluevalley.net
Brave River Ranch is located at the north end of the Flint Hills. It is ten minutes from Onaga and twenty minutes from St. Marys, Kansas.