The Quindaro was a Wyandot town named after Nancy Quindaro Brown, Chief Adam Brown’s daughter. It was founded by combining the allotments of 13 different Wyandots, with the intention of providing Kansas with a temprance town and freeport on the Missouri River.
The town was a success for the first few years and boasted a steam saw mill, a four story limestone hotel, a steamship, and a levy which could dock up to six ships at one time. The Underground Railroad was also in operation in the Wyandot settlement and was run by abolitionist tribal members.
The land was lost during and after the American Civil War, ultimately through illegal taxation. The land was taxed at $5.00 an acre in 1867. On an 80 acreallotment, the annual tax would have been $400.00. (The annual tax on Tara in ‘Gone with the Wind’ was $200.00.) When the Wyandots refused to pay the illegal tax, (indian land was not taxable)the land was seized and sold at sherrif’s auction.
Today the Quindaro is one of the richest archaeological sites in the midwest. The Wyandot Nation of Kansas is working with groups involved in preserving the historic town site and ruins.