Thoughts on Western Kansas

I was in the 8th grade and my best friend Gary Long moved from Topeka to Bennington, I went to visit him, I think I took the bus to Salina and was picked up,spent a week and had a blast. I remember seeing "The Muppet Movie" in Salina, going to a tractor pull, which was a blast and Bennington had a drug store with fountain drinks and you could sit there. I have never been further west than that point since then. I've flown west to Northern California and Arizona but Western Kansas has been a mystery to me. Knowing when I flew the plane made connections in Dallas, It's possible I've never flown over points West of Salina.

The legend is Western Kansas and all of Kansas is flat as a pancake, certain things prove that out,on a bright partly cloud unusually cool day, the towns identified by the grain elevators and church spires can be seen for miles and miles.At times it seems you are never going to get there.
Case in point to get to Russell, Kansas off highway 18, you turn onto 281 and soon see a sign saying 16 miles. a mile later on the horizon is the grain elevators of Russell. You do go over hills and valleys and lose the horizon,so Kansas is definitely not flat as a pancake but another hill and the grain elevator returns.

The towns are sparse, hooking up with 24 North of Salina,Glen Elder passes by in the blink of an eye, a lake that I had thought was called Glen Elder but is called Waconda, then Cawker City,home of the largest ball of twine. Downs passes by in the blink of an eye,then Osborne,Alton Bluffs,Stockton,Hills City,Nicodemus and our destination the Cottonwood Ranch, just outside of Studley.The self guided tour tells us the Ranch is in the valley of the South Soloman River. If Kansas is so flat why is there a South Soloman River Valley.

If you want to eat in one of these town, you take what you can get. None of the multiple exits of Salina and Abilene on I-70. I didn't plan on eating at Pizza Hut in Hill City, I might have been surprised there was a Pizza Hut in Hill City.It might serve as the town salad bar,it seemed to as 2 different people came in just to get a salad while we were there.

I noticed a time line in the State, Leavenworth,Lawrence,Lecompton,Topeka,Mission and towns/Cities in the Eastern part of the state were founded in the 1850's and found themselves embroiled in Bleeding Kansas and the Major National Issue of the Day.Cawker City was founded in 1870 by 4 people who ended up in the wrong place.The founders of the town decided on the name over a poker game. E.H. Cawker won.

The Cottonwood Ranch was settled by John Fenton Platt,who emigrated from Yorkshire in 1880,he farmed Sheep and the area was soon populated by his family members.The history of Nicodemus is more storied, as described here:
http://www.nps.gov/nico/

Damar has yet another history,In 1884 President Grover Cleveland signed a document entitling Francis St. Peter to 160 acres sold for $400.My educated guess is Homesteaders ? French Canadians followed, they began to call the town "Acadia of the West" , the St Joseph's church was built in the early decade of the 20th century.

Russell has totally different story, 60 families from Ripon,Wisconsin came to a water stop on the Union Pacific Railroad in 1871. Unlike other towns in the area, It was not settled by Volga Russian,Czech,Germans,Swedes, England or French Canadians.Russell,Kansas is the home of two US Senators,Robert Dole and Arlen Spector of PA.Signage of I-70 reminds you have the heritage of the area settlers,Czech festivals in Wilson,Little Sweden in Lindsburg.The Cafe in Damar sports a French flag,the melting pot of American is all around you in Western Kansas and doing very well. Now on to the specifics of the trip, but no matter what I saw, these thoughts of the flat lands, or not and the little communities are what stays with me.