Near here the town of Plymouth and Lexington once stood as outposts on
the Lane Trail, approximated today by US-75. Named for abolitionist
James H. Lane, the trail was established in 1856 to bypass proslavery
strongholds in Missouri and provide free-state settlers a safe route
into Kansas. Rock piles known as "Lane's chimneys" marked the trail.
Leaving Iowa City, settlers went west into Nebraska and south into
Kansas, passing through Plymouth, Lexington, Powhattan, Netawaka, and
Holton before arriving in Topeka. The trail also served as part of the
underground railroad, used by John Brown and others to transport slaves
north to freedom.
At Plymouth, three miles south of the Nebraska line, and at Lexington, a
few miles further south, the settlers built log cabins surrounded by
earthen-walled forts for protection. Armed with rifles and bolstered by
a small cannon at Plymouth, the settlers established an antislavery
presence that helped bring "Bleeding Kansas" into the Union as a free
state. Today, however, Plymouth and Lexington exist only as a memory.