High Plains

Date of Trip:October 16,2010

I recall my first trip west last year and being fasinated by the wind farms, miles and miles of Tall, lean white windmills dotting farm lands between Salina and Russell on I-70. The overwhelming image I had on what would be the longest trip I have taken since the mission to explore Kansas,was not taken with a camera,but lives in the minds eye. The wind farms at night.It's really dark in that stretch of road, the towns are all miles off the highway and the dark sky has a beauty all it own. To the north they are dotted with red lights,obviously used for air travel, the funny thing was they blink on and off in what is almost a dance to no music. In the car we were listening to a biography of John Wayne, so that couldnt be it. Heading west we timed the first view of the sentenial like windmills at 10 miles. So it was a few minutes before we reached the farms itself and the cause of the blinking was revealed. The blades whirling around cut out the red light for a brief moment. It was beautiful to watch the ballet of red dots against the black night.


The weekend was also a time of Fall festivals,a corn husking contest at the Buffalo Bill statue near Oakley to the Maple Leaf festival in Baldwin.

As we have gone on this trips, a bucket list has emerged, County court houses. I love the town square feel to them,mainly because we in Topeka have the Capital Building, the court house is a gross looking 1950's look to it.Most of the courthouses are old,situationed in the town square with mom and pops stores around them. As we found in December in Yates Center,wonderful christmas lights, 3 hit county court houses, in Sharon Springs,Goodland and Oakley. Plus a beautiful court house in Cheyenne Wells,Co.

Mount Sunflower is the highest point in Kansas at 4 thousand feet. It is not a mountain at all by the high point of several hills. It lays 11 miles down this road and 2 miles up that road from US-40. Or you get there from I-70, same directions, 12 miles here and 2 miles there. Either way you pass farm land,cows grazing and occasionally passing the road.

The Summit includes a picnic area,a mailbox with a guestbook and stories about a wedding conducted there on a New Years Day in bitter cold, some iron works and a note that Colorado is at the first fence in the distance, about a half mile away.

Please to note I made it all four states in this calendar year and Jan 29,2011 is the 150th Birthday of Kansas Statehood.

Pictures US-36

!. Skyline of Lebanon as seen from Geographical Center of the US Marker
2. Old Hotel at Center
3. Marker with directions to Center
4. Pony Express stable near Hanover
5. Oregon Trail Park, Pott County

Journey to the Center of the Country

Trip Date : August 7,2010

I saw a little bit of all the historical crossroads of Kansas as I set out from Topeka on this hot August Saturday. I-70 for about 20 miles to 99 North on the way to 36 and then West. Between Wamego and Westmoreland (Westy) we came across a historical marker for the Oregon Trail. Within eye sight of the marker was Scott Springs,where as many 300,000 heeding Horace Greely's call went West you man. Wagon ruts are still visible as much as 170 to 180 years later. America's Roman Highways.The Park is small,contains several historic markers and a wagon and ox statue. Visitors are encouraged to sign the guest book,which is a composition notebook kept in a box.To whoever keeps of it, Topeka represents on the Oregon Trail. I cannot help but wonder how many days out from the Ward-Meade cabin in Topeka this spring is.

Up a very scenic byway,still in the flint hills,we hit US-36 which travels across the Northern tear of counties from Missouri to the Colorado border.The first town we came to was Marysville, the truck stops,hotels and everything is Pony Express. so in the span of a half hours drive,we have moved from the 1830's to that brief time when the Pony Express caught the world fancy.Four miles off 36 is the Hollenberg Station one of the few, if not only Pony Express Stations still standing. Riders changed horses every 10 miles or so on the trip between St. Josephs,Missouri and Sacramento,California. Riders were required to stop every so often as well and stayed at stations like Hollenberg,The site is maintained by the Kansas State Historical Society.

The Flint Hills are gorgeous even in the faded brown grass, as you come out of the flint hills, the area is truly flat.You can gauge the distance as Grain elevators dot the skyline.We pasted Home,Washington,read historic markers near Scandia on the way to Lebanon,Kansas and eventually Smith Center,where we encountered a minor course correction.


Lebanon,Kansas had a population of 303 according the 2000 Census. I would guess it sees more than that passing in a summer. The object of interest is a stone obelisk with an American flag planted on it. It's a representation of the geographic center of the Continental United States. An old hotel that is now used as a hunting lodge stands behind it, also a small 1 room chapel stands near by.The few minutes we stayed a couple of guys on motorcycles came by as did a car from Florida. People do visit nowhere.

Smith Center,Kansas in 2000 had a population of 1,931.Now the town has at first look 2 sports bars,1 burger joint and a Pizza Hut and 3 Hotels. The reason for the hotels is the population explodes during hunting season. Not far is the home of the man who wrote "Home on the Range", the state song of Kansas and sung by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby among others. It is also the home of the Smith Center High School Redmen,a high school football dystany who had been undefeated for 6 seasons going into the State Championship game last November when the Nation tying winning streak came to an end. It was the subject of a wonderful book "Our Boys" by Joe Drape. It's a great book about Rural Kansas,High School sports and life in general.

Here we found out that our plans to go an hour down the road to Logan would have to be changed. Those it was 2:30 in the afternoon there was no way we could eat and make it to Logan before the Museum we were planning to go closed. A word about how these trips are planned, Topeka's PBS station has a wonderful show called "Sunflower Journeys", a friend had seen an episode about Logan, I said sure. Now I have no idea what the Museum is about,I could look on the internet, but that seems like cheating. So I did not make it to a Museum and have no idea what is about. Logan has been reschedule, the mystery remains.

Interesting side note,the book about Smith Center mentioned how far Smith Center was from the nearest McDonalds, we looked for it on GPS,Sitting at the county court house, It's almost 80 miles away in Holdrege,Nebraska. Wow. We plotted a trip home that took us through Cawker City,Beloit and Salina then home on I-70.

Small Town Kansas.

I have traveled this year, Interesting how weather has been a factor this year. It was sooo cold in Oklahoma City, and a cloudy gray day in Omaha. I decided a while ago unless there was a definite Kansas connection,I wasn't going to write.

I was in Lawrence briefly and then Franklin County. In Lawrence I took the Whiote Glove tour of the Robert J Dole Institute of Politics. It was a real behind the scenes look at the stacks of Papers and Gifts Dole recieved as a US Senator and Presidential Candidate. I'd encourage anyone to go and if you have an interest in Archival work, how things are preserved, the White Glove tour, offered once a month or so for Free is very good, as are any of the lectures I've been to since the place opened in 2003.

The point of the day lay Southward, about 20 miles south is Ottawa,Kansas, the county seat of Franklin. the town is cut in half by the Marais Des Cygne River, more about that and a wonderful song in a minute. There is a Museum called the Old Santa Fe Depot. It features history of Victorian Living Rooms,Soda fountains,old train stuff. Stuff that is pretty standard in my almost 2 years of wondering around.

Special attention is paid to th Pottawatomie Massacre, discussed briefly here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottawatomie_Massacre.

We walked on a dyke by the river, which floods often, giant flood gates surround a bridge over the river.


going North and East up I-35 we find outselfs in Wellsville,Kansas. Population around 1200 and hometown of country music singer Chely Wright. She made headlines a couple of weeks ago by announcing she's gay. I first heard her a couple of years ago on an AM station and see did a song that really moved me,called "The River". I didn't know who she was, bought the album based on the one song and because she's a Kansas girl.

Here are my impressions of this small town

I've been in a lot of small towns in Kansas. Wellsville has about a 3 block main street with a dentist office,a casey's general store. Every small town in Kansas seems to have a Pizza place,a bar, an American Legion Post. If it's a county seat it will have a subway and town square.Wellsville has a BBQ place, a burger place "Big Bopper's burger and ... See MoreVideos"

On this rainy,cloudy saturday we went to the Pizza place, Buzzard's Pizza. It had about 8 tables, a hand written sign saying this months special is "Road Kill Pizza". A flat screen on a wall next to saturday night beer specials. The 2 kids working the place were watching the history channel. After we were done eating we stayed to watch the end of "Pawn Stars", we had to know how much the civil war stamp sold for, the waiter asked us if we needed anything else. I said " No, we just want to know how much the stamp sold for." He "Yeah, it's a pretty interesting show."

The stores on main street all said "open till 4" but seemed to be closed by 3:30. The most modern looking building is the bank , I turned a corner and saw the high school so I walked the two blocks to see it. past some houses, one had a kids bike on the sidewalk. As I crossed the street a truck went by, the old man waved at me.I smiled and waved back.

The inscription on the sign at the school stopped me cold in my tracks.After asking yesterday about the truth in the song "The River" here was a sign in loving memory of ...

Before you turn onto Chely Wright Way, you pass a sign with the school state championships ,Boys basketball Chely's Junior (?) year.Which is typical of most small towns in Kansas, that along with FFA.

The nearest wal mart is either in Ottawa,15 miles or Baldwin, 15 miles in another direction. I am suprised with as many small towns in Kansas as I find myself that Wellsville is near a creek or a river, at least not the way we came in.If I had a dime for everytime I crossed a bridge to get into a small town.....

The neighborhoods are tree lined,churches almost every corner,farm fields on the outskirts. I'm guessing not much has changed since 1989. As Garrison Keillor says as he opens his monlogues "It was a quiet week in my home town of Lake Wobegon, the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve. " I thought it cool to be there, I'm glad I went.


Here is the song:

Last from Fort Scott

These always send chills down my bones. The bill of sale for slaves.

Interior pictures

a couple of Cannons, a field medical kit,dolls with hickory nuts used as heads,a jail cell in the brig

Fort Scott Jan 16,2010

Some pictures walking around the parade grounds. The Long white building is the horse stable. The buildings with Greek Columns are Officer Row.