Explore Your JCPRD: Rural recreation – the Tomahawk Hills Golf Course area

Nestled in the western part of Johnson County, Tomahawk Hills Golf Course offers more than just a scenic place to play—it’s a site steeped in history. From its roots as Native American hunting grounds to its role in the growth of local transportation and suburban development, this land has witnessed centuries of change. Today, it offers a glimpse into the past, with stories that still echo in the landscape. Read on to discover more through our latest History in the Parks interpretive panel, which highlights the rich history of this remarkable place.

Native lands

For centuries, the area that is now Tomahawk Hills Golf Course was part of the communally-held ancestral hunting territory of the Kanza and Osage Tribes. In the 1820s, the federal government removed the Kanza and Osage people to reservations elsewhere in what is now Kansas. The government then removed the Shawnee from their ancestral territory in the Ohio River Valley and placed them on a reservation that spanned modern-day Johnson County until 1854, when Congress formed the Kansas Territory.

The federal government gave Shawnee tribal members a difficult choice: remove again to a smaller reservation in a smaller Indian Territory (Oklahoma today) or remain in Kansas as individual landowners in the style of Euro-Americans. Each Shawnee man, woman, and child who stayed received 200 acres of land. The Shawnee Tribe split over the decision, but many members chose to live in this well-watered and forested area.

The Midland Trail

What began as an east-west trail originally established by Native people turned into an important transportation route. Used by Indigenous people, missionaries, and surveyors in the 1830s and ‘40s, it was expanded to Topeka and known as the Westport to Lawrence Road during the 1850s. At the same time, it was incorporated into the California or Oregon-California Trail and many wagons rolled across the area.

With the advent of automobiles, the route was renamed the Midland Trail in 1916. In the 1920s, it became known as the transcontinental National Roosevelt Midland Trail – a popular route from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Today, it is recognized as Midland Drive.

Three lost communities

After Kansas became a territory, new towns emerged across the agricultural landscape. While many still exist today, three have faded into history. Monticello was platted in 1857 four miles west of the Tomahawk Hills Golf Course. An early stagecoach stop, it became a proslavery settlement during the Territorial era. A tornado devastated the town in 1859 and the Santa Fe Railroad passed it by. Today it is part of the City of Shawnee.

Chillicothe was founded in 1859 by a Shawnee tribal member and named for a band of the tribe. It was located immediately north of the golf course on the Westport to Lawrence Road and had an important stagecoach stop hotel. But, by 1874, a map lists it as the “Old Townsite of Chillicothe,” suggesting it had already faded away.

The small community of Zarah was located between the golf course and Monticello. Platted in 1869 along the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, it grew slowly despite also being located at the terminus of the Hocker Line streetcar. The City of Shawnee annexed the area around 1970.

Hocker Line and streetcar suburbs

In 1907, Richard Hocker built the Kansas City & Olathe Electric Railway, better known as the Hocker Line. This interurban streetcar connected downtown Kansas City, Mo., to towns and emerging suburbs in Johnson County. An attractive golf course near the end of the line (Tomahawk Hills Golf Course today) spurred neighborhood platting and homebuilding along the tracks.

Area farmers Benjamin and Artis Mae Temple platted the Golf Club Acres subdivision northwest of the course and Golf Club Acres to the east in 1912. David and Katherine Mansur platted Greenwood to the east in 1910. But buyers proved few in these early countryside suburbs. The automobile gradually replaced rail transportation, and the Great Depression hurt the Hocker Line, which stopped operations after 1943.

A century of golf

Tomahawk Hills, the region’s earliest golf course still in operation, has a rich history dating back to the early 20^th century. The course originally opened in 1910 as Elm Ridge Golf and Country Club, which had relocated from Blue Hills in Kansas City, Mo. The Elm Ridge course closed in 1914 but reopened the next year as Shawnee Heights Country Club. By 1917, the course expanded to 18 holes before a fire destroyed its clubhouse in 1922, leading to its closure. Tomahawk Hills reopened in 1927 as a fee course but closed again soon after.

From 1935 to 1941, the site functioned as a girls’ camp under the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program that provided work and education to young adults. Local farmer Elon J. DeRight operated a cattle farm on the land until 1953. Meadowbrook Country Club considered the site for their course prior to opening instead in Prairie Village.

In 1954, Tomahawk Hills Country Club reopened once again. Nineteen years later, in 1973, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District (JCPRD) purchased the site and made it a public course. Today, Tomahawk Hills Golf Course remains a challenging 18-hole championship course and a popular JCPRD facility and event space.

Learn more!

To dive deeper into the history of Tomahawk Hills, visit the golf course and explore the interpretive marker installed in the clubhouse. This marker is part of the JCPRD’s History in the Parks interpretive series, a collaboration between the Parks & Golf Courses Division and the Johnson County Museum, part of JCPRD’s Culture Division. Similar markers highlighting local history can be found at Shawnee Mission Park (John Barkley Plaza), Arthur & Betty Verhaeghe Park, Big Bull Creek Park, Meadowbrook Park, Antioch Park, the Russell and Helen Means Observation Tower at Kill Creek Park, and more. 

For an even broader look at Johnson County’s past, visit the Johnson County Museum at 8788 Metcalf Ave in Overland Park. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Plan your visit at JCPRD.com/museum.