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.

Pictures -St Joseph

Sacajawea guarding the Casino.

The Bullet hole at Jesse James house.

Outside of Jesse James House

A cockfighting ring broken up. They put these around the cock's legs.

Christmas decorations on a train


old time speakers

Unused Hang mans gallows.

The Motel is no longer there, but they kept the sign.

Pony Express stables

Pony Express -Eastern Terminus and a strange place

St Josephs,Missouri

Date of Trip: December 5,2009

Trip are now weather dependent, as I watch a beautiful snow fall out of my window. I have to think this is the last one of what has been an amazing year. Last week the Trails were the story,Independence,Missouri, the shoving off point for so many going west. I managed to cover Lewis and Clark,Oregon,Santa Fe,California and the Mormon Trail.About 35 miles north is St. Joseph, home town of Walter Cronkite,Jesse James and the eastern point of the Pony Express. The Patee House serves as a Museum for the city and I shall write of it shortly. One of the exhibits in the Museum is a newspaper article from from January of 1864,It announces Lincoln is running for re election and just below it a famed actor named John Wilkes Booth was in town and convinced to give a performance of Shakespearean monologues. Probably the first and not last time the two names will be linked.

We came from the Pony Express Museum. It's a nice,very interactive place were you can sit on saddles and pump water from a well into a horses trofe. Lots of maps of the Trail,artifacts and a D.A.R. Museum outside marking the stable. It is worth noting 2010 is 150th anniversary of the Express brief run.

Next was the Patee House which I thought was going to be the Pony Express office, which it was , but was so much more.

-Lincoln stayed there in 1859

-Mark Twain stayed there

-William Seward gave a speech from the balcony

-Military trials after the civil war occurred there

-An episode of "Ripley's Believe it or not not" was filmed there.Jack Palance was there and someone kept his cigar butts

-Walter Cronkite was there, as his father the dentist has artifacts in the museum.

-Next door you can find the house Jesse James was shot, which had been moved from it's original location, the sign out front says "See the Bullet hole" and we did.

Downtown is wonderful statue of a Pony Express Rider. I'll warn you if want to eat anything other Taco Bell or Hardees, you might be forced to eat at the casino.We did anyway. We have missed something else along the way. I'm going to fill the next entry with pictures from Patee house. The last picture taken at the casino is a beautiful sun set on the Missouri River. The leaves on the trees are going and I couldn't help but wonder how soon snow would cover the ground, Ice fill the river and wonderful is this was the last day of 2009 that the river would flow .

This is probably the last trip of the year, but don't worry. I sat down with a sheet of paper and came up with 19 trips,mostly in the state of Kansas that can all be done in a day. Last year was Bleeding Kansas for the most part, this year Trails ,who knows what will catch my eye in 2010. I went to Fort Leavenworth,far Western Kansas, saw such oddities as the World Largest Ball of Twine,a giant shovel,a Monument of the National Park System that told the story of my family history . In this, Lincoln's 200th Birthday , Steps were he spoke have been preserved, and a hotel where he stayed stands. Last year I was enchanted by the story of the Harvey Girls, this year I saw the way of life,Conestoga Wagons, that the trains ended.

Last year I remembered talking to a gentleman who said "If take a pins and stick in a map at Emporia,Kansas and draw a circle 200 miles around it, you will find more US History than almost anywhere in the Country." The 13 Colonies may argue that point but between the Labor Unrest of the Amazon Women in Pittsburg ,the Trials,The Homesteaders,Fort Leavenworth,Bleeding Kansas,Brown v BOE,William Allen White,Harry Truman,Dwight Eisenhower and so many others. He makes a good case.

We remember Hays House where Custer and Jesse James dined. We remember the choice Chicken Annie's or next door Chicken Mary's. We remember the Casino in St Joe with the statue of Sacajawea in front of it. We ate well,saw some amazing and frankly strange things.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We put away the GPS and the smart phone,give K-tag a rest, read all the brouchures I picked up and plan and plot for 2010. See you on the highways.....