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.

Return to the Road

The last entry I did was in early December and a trip to St. Joe. Outside of the Casino were we ate on the bank of the Missouri River I took a picture of a Wonderful sunset. I posted it on some message boards I am on and got good comments. I had a feeling as I looked at the river that day,I was the last good day of 2009. I knew snow was in the forecast for Tuesday and the river would be snow packed if not iced up. Little did I realize how right my thoughts were.

We did have snow and icy conditions on that Tuesday. It was nothing compared to the three weeks that began on Christmas Eve.Told to go home at Noon on Christmas we at work scraped our wind shields and wondered how bad the slide home would be. Stopping at a quick shop near a hill,I watched a car slide backwards to flat land. It really had not yet begun to snow. 3 days it stopped. 13 inches with epic snow drifts. Someone wrote of driving an hour and half in the blizzard to go 20 miles. I noticed an area where because of the drifts you could see the ground, right next to two feet of drifts. At some point I had to laugh, one because the multude of people of who urn for a white Christmas got what they wanted and then some, and two I picked up several books on my stops in 2009 dealing with the frontier and the trials that ran through Kansas. True I was in a heated home and not out in the wilds, but I got the story of what they saw. When we were in Lincoln,Nebraska one of the glass painting depicted the Blizzard of 88 or some year.The guide asked if Kansas had any stories of the blizzard, I didn't think so, but I can now say , We remember and aren't likely to forget the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Just to set the record, more snow fell the week between Christmas and New Year and more fell the first weekend of 2010.


Later that week, we were visited with bitter cold and wind chills in negative 20 range.That having passed, 40's and certain snow meltage and we could dream of more trips.... That has now come to pass.

Fog warnings did not stop us. So we went to Fort Scott,Kansas. The heaviest fog seemed to burn off the further East we went.and turning south on 69 it wasn't bad.

On to the Fort.

Fort Scott opened in the 1840's as part of a chain on the Indian Frontiers, the guidebook says the intent was to keep the Indians on one side and the non Indians on the other side. Dragoon fought in the Mexican-American War. Fort Riley,near Junction City opened in the 1850's and Fort Scott closed. Here is where the story gets interesting.

The buildings were sold and one of the officers quarters became a Free state hotel and one, on the other side of the parade ground became a Pro Slave hotel. The guide books speaks of many a drunk brawl. One of the signs contains a quote from a woman whose fiancee had been killed. She wrote in a letter:

"But remember this,I am a girl, but I can fire a pistol and if ever the time comes I will send some of you to a place where theirs 'weeping and knashing of teeth ..." that is one of the most powerful statements coming from Bleeding Kansas I have ever read.

As several battles took place in Kansas and Missouri took place, Fort Scott reopened and was the home of the First Kansas Colored,an infantry unit of Freed Slaves. This unit per dates the unit featured in the movie "Glory", though they haven't gotten a movie about them. This goes to the long held historians belief that the Civil War only took place East of the Mississippi.

The Fort closed in the 1870's,however it took a century to become a part of the National Park system.


The Town of Fort Scott is the County seat of Bourbon County, 2000 Census listed the population around 8,000. It always amazes me the eating opportunities.I've noticed a lot of these smaller towns have a locally owned pizza join, a bar and a subway. GPS gave us about the same eating opportunities in Fort Scott. Mostly we were pointed a half hour down the road to Pittsburg.We ate at a sports bar and watched the first half of the K-State/Colorado basketball game.I noticed almost everyone who came in brought kids. I also noticed the town Christmas decorations were still up, a testament to how bad the winter has been, the epic Christmas snow, the snow just after New Years, the record wind chill and now the fog.


The Fort itself is mostly refurbished buildings, but you do get to see what the Fort looked like. On of my favorite exhibits is a series of photos. The first from the 1860's of the powered explosive building, the next showing evacuations of the site and rebuilding the building. It the round building on the parade ground in the pictures that follow.

Many exhibits talk about the man who designed the fort,Captain Tom Sword,a West Point graduate who wanted to make the Fort the "Crack Post of the Frontier", he favored Greek Archtexture,which can clearly seen in the Posts on the Officer Quarters. The building are unique to anything else I have seen from the time.

On to the Pictures ...