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garrisoned hay was cut and hauled about forty miles from the vicinity of Medicine Bluff on Caché Creek. I do not think it would be advisable to re-establish Fort Cobb, as under the present circumstances the location described on Cashé Creek - would be better. Believing that before very long all the troops in this District can be used to better advantage at stations beyond the present Western boundaries of the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw Nations - I desired to ascertain the practicability of opening a supply route from Fort Riley or Fort unclear nearly direct to the eastern point of the Witchita Mts. (*)

• (insert) The information in regard to this subject which I derived while in the vicinity of Fort Cobb from frontiersmen, traders, and indians leaves little doubt in my mind that an excellent road can be made with very little labor from Mount Scott to Fort Harker? or Fort Riley - bearing East to cross the Washita below Fort Cobb, avoid the Salt Plains and cross the Arkansas near the mouth of the Little Arkansas. + (Insert Paragraph below-) + I shall endeavor by hereafter personally visiting that section to enable myself to give still more definite information regarding this matter. It might be necessary on account of the length of the route and to look out for the Indians in the neighborhood of the Salt Plainsto have a post in the territory near the southern line of Kansas.