Kansas - Day 16 - Greensburg, southcentral KS

Cheney State Park, Cheney
Friday, 16 October 2020

today's route

Right after I left the campground, I found myself crossing a large dam.  On my right was the Cedar Bluff Reservoir, a large lake.  On my left was a vast valley with the Smoky River running through it.  The view made it clear what the area could look like if the dam were breached.  Not much farther down the road was an "info kiosk," as the sign said, so I stopped.  

Cedar Bluff Reservoir

Cedar Bluff Dam

The levee around the Cedar Bluff Reservoir was a prominent feature at the park, so I knew there was a lot of engineering involved in this project.  The "info kiosk" (aka outdoor signs) explained that the Flood Control Act of 1944 authorized the US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers to construct flood control measures.  This dam was delayed by WWII but was completed in 1951 with a dual purpose: prevent flooding and provide irrigation for farmers.  They also established a state fish hatchery which supplied fish for several nearby states.  The hatchery is now closed and farmers use groundwater wells to irrigate now, but flood control is still important.  In addition, the reservoir is a popular recreation area and is also used for wildlife and as a municipal water supply.

I'd seen Threshing Machine Canyon marked on a park map and thought the name was really curious.  The park said it was a strenuous walk through the canyon so I didn't try to find it but did wonder about that name.  This sign explained it, showing it's often a good idea to stop at these little informational signs along the road of life.

On the road

You can see from the route map that much of today's drive was due south.  I was surprised to find that the land along here was not particularly flat but instead still had those rolling hills I'd seen farther north, though fewer of them and less hilly.

This area was all farmland.  I'll bet 85% of Kansas is in farmland and I started wondering about their tax base.  Is this a poor state?  They surely aren't charging exorbitant taxes on farmland, because most farmers operate on a skimpy budget anyway.  And this is the state where, in 2012, former governor Sam Brownback convinced enough legislators that trickle-down economics would work.  It didn't.  Brownback's tax plan was repealed in 2017, but I think KS still has left-over fiscal problems from that alone.  I read that KS is one of the few states with a sales tax on food, meaning it's not kind to its poorer residents.

I came to a number of 90° turns, reminding me of rural Texas roads that turn to accommodate field boundaries.

I passed a large wind farm, and large fields that had been recently reseeded.

At La Crosse I was sorry that the Barbed Wire Museum was closed.  It's the only one in the world and I thought it would have been interesting.  But it's only open from May 1st until Labor Day, making a visit to Kansas in the summer more important than I'd have thought.

I passed a sign saying the Pawnee Watershed (which presumably I was in) is the world's largest watershed district.  That seems real specific, probably to exclude total watersheds like that of the Mississippi River, which seems to cover about half the US.

I continued to pass fields of maize; fields "all shaven and shorn" (like the priest, that married the man all tattered and torn, who kissed the maiden all forlorn, who milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog that worried the cat that chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built - driving where there's no NPR station leaves me with only my own thoughts); fields with new green crop coming up; fields just recently harvested and not yet plowed under; fallow fields.  Farming seems no longer to consist of planting a crop in the spring, watching it grow in the summer, harvesting it in the fall, and resting in the winter.  It's quite obviously a year-round business these days.

We started the day's drive under a thick cloud bank that covered almost the whole visible sky.  It took miles and miles to finally get far enough south to start coming out from under.

The view of wind stirring up dust devils in the distance makes these fields look like there's smoke from dozens of campfires back 150 years ago.

There's a sign in the town of Kinsley that says:

   Midway USA

   New York City 1,561 miles

   San Francisco 1,561 miles

Kinsley looked like it was sound asleep, as if it were early on a Sunday morning instead of mid-morning on a Friday.  There were a few people around and only a few businesses seemed open.  I crossed US 50 here, my old friend I spent so much time on in Colorado and earlier this month.

They don't waste much creativity on street names here in Kansas.  Most streets are alphabet letters - U Road, V Road - or numbers - 120th Avenue, 135th Avenue.  When they bother with actual names, it's often trees.  Occasionally famous people, like presidents.  But really the alphabet and numbers are the most usual.

Greensburg

I turned the corner, so to speak, from going south to going east, at Greensburg.  I'd come to town specifically for something called The Celestial Museum and The Big Well.  

The Celestial Museum part of the title comes, not from some mystical philosophy as I'd hoped, but instead from a meteorite - world's largest pallasite meteorite - being displayed there.  Here's the link that explains it.   http://www.worldslargestthings.com/pallasite-meteorite

The Big Well claims to be the world's largest hand dug well.  This link not only describes the circumstances of its being dug, but also claims that it's not actually the world's largest.   http://www.worldslargestthings.com/hand-dug-well

I ended up not going in, because of the $6 admission fee being more than I wanted to pay for the attractions it offered, but I thought the building was striking.

That turned out to be not the only striking thing in this small town of just under 800.  First, there's this sculpture.

Per Aspera Ad Astra

a closer view

The title of the sculpture is the official state motto which they translate as "to the stars through difficulties."  This sculpture sits in a park next to The Big Well museum.

Across the street is an odd-looking art museum, though I've often thought the architecture of art museums was unusual.  And a block from that is a small park where I'd found space for the RV.  After I'd walked the dogs around the area and came back to the RV, I paid attention to the artwork that was displayed in that small park.

That metal column shown at right is one of the more striking, and for some reason it took me a minute to realize it had an inscription that ran more than half-way around it.

first part of quotation

rest of quotation

It's hard to tell, but this is a paraphrase of Isaiah 58:12, which the New International Version of the Bible translates as:

   Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
      and will raise up the age-old foundations;
   you will be called the Repairer of Broken Walls,
      Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

There's a reason that inscription was chosen, and a reason for the fancy city hall, partly visible in this photo (below).

Greensburg's appearance surprised me: large vacant blocks covered with grass, which is what I saw the most of, don't seem to square with a fancy city building like the one above.

This memorial I found should have been a clue, but it wasn't.  What I didn't know when I was there is that Greensburg had been nearly leveled by this tornado in 2007.  It destroyed at least 95% of the town and killed these 10 people. 

Only about half the population remains, but the town has made a valiant effort at reimagining itself.  Because almost everything had to be rebuilt, they chose this time to build green.  Almost the entire population agreed (there were a few dissenters that poured scorn on the idea) and the city council passed rules to facilitate the plan.  For instance, all city-owned buildings needed to meet standards for LEED certification, which is no small matter.  

Some things they tried haven't worked like they'd hoped - such as a recycled water plan for some city facilities.  But they've become a sort of laboratory for green cities and have had emissaries arrive from all over the world to learn what they've done that's worked and what they'd do differently.  

The entire city is powered by wind generation (which, oddly, is opposed by the president many residents support).  New houses must meet certain standards for energy conservation.  And that fact explains a house that fascinated me.

I couldn't figure out what a house that looked like a New Mexico adobe house was doing in southern Kansas.  It makes lots of sense now that I know the background.

The long view of that house
with city hall in the left rear
shows what a wiped canvas
Greensburg became.

While I was taking this house photo, an older man riding a bicycle stopped by the RV to tell me I had a tail light out.  And he was right.  I know it wasn't out when I got my oil changed earlier this month, but it's sure out now.  Nice of him to bother to tell me.

As I was leaving town I saw a sign saying, "I'd Turn Back If I Were You."  It seemed almost as ominous as it did inviting.

Back on the road

Along US 54, I started seeing fields of cotton still very much growing.  In fact, I saw so many of these fields I decided cotton must be a major crop in this area.

At Pratt, I passed a sign advertising Donald's Serva-Teria Smorgasbord.  That seemed wildly improbable but I looked it up and apparently it's a real thing.  The sign looks like it's from the 1950s, though the business dates back only to 1979.  I wanted to show it here but can't find an uncopyrighted version online.

Also at Pratt, I stopped at an O'Reilly's Auto Parts to fix my light, but found I couldn't get the cover plate off.  A couple of the screws had been screwed in so tight they'd cracked the cover and were too tight for me to get out with a manual ratchet screwdriver.  I tried hard for quite some time before I decided I wasn't going to win that battle.  I came near to stripping a couple of the screws and still couldn't budge them.  So I had to come up with a Plan B.

As I drove along, I passed another wind farm, lots of maize, some cows, but mostly cotton.

I crossed the Ninnescah River twice, then crossed the South Fork Ninnescah River 3 times and then the North Fork Ninnescah River.  All of the views I had showed a lot of water in it.  When I looked it up I learned the river is entirely in Kansas, flows for 56 miles and dumps into the Arkansas River south of Wichita.

At the town of Kingman I was stunned at the sight of a buillding with turrets, that I could see a couple of blocks into town off the main road.  I circled around a few times trying to get close to it but wasn't ever able to get anything but too close.

I'm lucky to have found this photo online.  It's labeled Kingman County Museum and is on the National Register of Historic Buildings.  It was built in 1888 to be the city hall, jail and firehouse.  Apparently it has an unusual tower feature that allowed them to hang the fire hoses, made of cotton, so they could dry and avoid mildew.

I couldn't find anything in the articles online that mentioned this building having been used as the Masonic Lodge, but I distinctly saw a cornerstone that mentioned the Masons and had the Masonic symbol on it.

As I was leaving I saw a sign that said "Glenn Stark Statues →".  Not having heard of Glenn Stark, I looked him up and found he was a folk artist, whose work is now displayed at a park here at Kingman.   http://www.kansastravel.org/glenn-stark  Sounds like this town is worth coming back to sometime.

I passed a sign that said I could turn left for Pretty Prairie.  I wondered if that were a town or a description of a sight to see, but it turns out to be a town of about 700 that was named for its scenic location.  So I was right both times.

And I turned north for a short distance on K-251 to Cheney State Park, where I plan to stay 2 nights.