Hermit's Cave on Belfry Hill

Hermit's Cave on Belfry Hill is a public park on Belfry Hill in Council Grove, Kansas. Council Grove established the park in 1901 due to the efforts of local booster Kate Aplington, who led private development and cleanup efforts on what had been poorly maintained city land. Aplington promoted the park by spreading its alleged connections to the Santa Fe Trail through two of its landmarks, Hermit's Cave and the bell tower from which Belfry Hill took its name. According to newspaperman John Maloy, in 1863, an Italian Roman Catholic priest lived as a hermit for five months in a cave west of Council Grove. Maloy's story was not published until 1890, and only one contemporary reference to the hermit has been found in local publications, shedding doubt on the historical accuracy of the story. Another local writer, Henry Inman, added to the story, and its popularity led locals to recognize the cave on Belfry Hill as the Hermit's Cave site. The bell tower on the hill came to Council Grove in 1863; the city purchased it from a church in Lawrence for use as a church and school bell. Later accounts added the detail that the bell was used to warn residents of Native American raids on white settlers, though this has since been disproven. The bell tower was destroyed in a wind storm in 1884, and a local used the bell as a flower pot until Aplington rebuilt the tower in 1901; she dedicated t

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