Sand Hill Plums

 July 7, 2021

By Seth McFarland

One of the wild fruits in this part of Kansas are the Prunus angustifolia commonly known as the Sand Hill, Chickasaw, or Goose Plums. The Prunus Americana is the cousin of this plant commonly found in the Southwest. Coronado discovered of the "prunes" found on his search for Quivera in 1541. In 1855, Bvt. Maj. William Anderson Thornton with a detachment from St. Louis to Santa Fe wrote of the soldiers who grew sick from eating too many green plums. Milo Milton Quaife wrote of his experience of the 1841 expedition across Texas and the Southern Plains to Santa Fe when food sources were so dire, that members of the expedition survived by eating dried plums that tasted like prunes. Outside of Chase, Kansas are traces of the Santa Fe Trail called Ralph's Ruts. Nearby are the Plub Buttes so named because of the plum groves that grew at the top of the buttes which became a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Plums were highly desired when ripe for jellies and syrups as sugar was a precious commodity.