Studley and the Cottonwood Ranch

a sad story in a bad economy, the Kansas State Historical Society has had to cut and trim like everyone else. Gone as of Labor Day 2009 is the Cottonwood Ranch in Studley Kansas. Well, it's not gone but the sheep have to go, the staff will take retirement after 20 some years and the tour will be self guided.

This is a 1890's ranch house built by an Englishman who raised sheep.The house has a nice collection of stained glass. One of the features the tour guide showed us is the work on the roofs was not always straight. One of the more entertaining stories is the roof on the front deck was painted blue, why blue ? Well apparently flies can be fooled into thinking the top of the porch is the sky and they have no place to land. Does it work ? The curator says he can sit outside of an evening and no flies bother him.

some talk about the ahh, semi closing. A large group trying to save the place made the argument that if you look at the tourist numbers per capta, it's a very popular attraction.Good news is it's still there, bad news is people will be missing out on a great guided tour. I really loved the discussion about the crooker roof and the shoody workmanship. People will still get the postcard view of Kansas Big Sky.