Big Springs is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in western Douglas County

Douglas County, Kansas

Douglas County is a county located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 110,826...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Today it has a water tower, tool shop, church and a fire station that is part of the Lecompton Township Fire Dist. 1. Its mailing address is Lecompton

Lecompton, Kansas

Lecompton is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. It is part of the Lawrence, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 608 at the 2000 census. Lecompton played a major historical role in pre-Civil War America as the Territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 1861...

. It is part of USD 450 Shawnee Heights School District in Tecumseh

Tecumseh, Kansas

Tecumseh is an unincorporated community situated along the Kansas River in eastern Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the central United States of America. It is part of the Topeka, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. Although official populations are not compiled for...

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History

Big Springs was founded in the fall of 1854 and is the oldest settlement in Douglas County. The town was founded by William Harper and John Chamberlain but had always been a popular watering hole along the Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...

. On September 5, 1855, Big Springs was home to a free-state convention in which determined men vowed to give their lives to defend their homes from border ruffians from Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

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Further reading

• Fitzgerald, Daniel. Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Traveler's Guide. 1988.