Lovewell State Park, Webber
Thursday, 8 October 2020
I saw a deer when we were out for one of our early walks. Fortunately, I was the only one who saw the deer. I'm ready to nominate them for one of the earth's most graceful and harmless creatures. Yes, I know they can wreak havoc on a garden, but their prey is plants, not other animals, and there's no argument they're graceful.
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| today's route |
Turning from the campground onto US 36, I saw a sign saying it's "The Fastest Route to Indianapolis." That hadn't occurred to me, but it probably is.
That road took us first through the small town of Norton and there I got a real jolt. I passed a house with a flagpole that had 2 flags. The one on top was for Trump, and the one underneath was a Confederate battle flag. It made me feel so unsettled I didn't recover for quite a while. I don't know why I didn't expect it.
In the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, Congress officially created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. One section of that act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed each territory to vote on whether it would be free or slave. Kansas was flooded by folks coming in from Missouri (mostly), determined to establish slavery in yet another state; Northerners too moved in determined to stop the advance of slavery. Unsurprisingly, violent fights followed.
The history of this 7-year period is stunning and too little known by most Americans. It includes stuffing of ballot boxes by non-residents, favoritism of pro-slavery forces by both Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, the near-killing of an anti-slavery senator by a pro-slavery senator on the Senate floor, wanton murders by both sides in Kansas, and US Army troops lighting cannon fuses aimed at the anti-slavery legislative building. This period makes it abundantly clear that Fort Sumter was the final straw, rather than the precipitator of the Civil War. Here's a link; it's not easy reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/Bleeding-Kansas Kansas became a state - a free state - less than 3 months before the battle at Fort Sumter, SC.
These events happened 160+ years ago, but some ideologies obviously die very hard. I was still surprised by those flags.
From Norton I turned south on K-283, which went up and down and up some more and down. This part of Kansas, at least, is definitely not flat. I saw hills everywhere, vast cornfields and grazing cows.
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| Ring-necked Pheasant |
Nicodemus
With imposition of Jim Crow laws post-Reconstruction, Blacks who lived in the South were finding life not much easier than it had been under slavery. Many moved west and, to counter the racial tensions almost everywhere, decided to form all-Black communities. In all, about a dozen of these were established in Kansas, some as early as the 1850s. The only one that is still a functioning community is Nicodemus, and there's not a lot left of that.
Wikipedia says the town was named for the Nicodemus in the New Testament (a Pharisee who came to believe what Jesus said and helped Joseph of Arimathea tend Jesus's body when he died), but information I saw in the town says it was named for the legendary first slave in the US to buy his freedom.
Thanks to the virus, I wasn't able to go into the park HQ and can report only on the signs I found outside. Fortunately, it's a US Park Service facility, so there're quite a few of those signs.
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| Township Hall |
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| Christmas memories |
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| Built about 1910, the Crackerbox School was bought by the ladies of the town; their husbands moved it here in the '40s. |
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| the town's cultural center |
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| Ladies of the Club |
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| the former St. Francis Hotel |
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| a historic structure |
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| He was the 1st Black postmaster in a Free state. His wife was also a local mover-and-shaker. |
Behind the township hall and school is a highway rest area that's also clearly used by the community - there's a playground and horseshoe pits and a bandstand and like that. There are also several other informational signs.
Then there's this extensive history of the town.
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| top of column 1 |
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| bottom of column 1 |
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| top of column 2 |
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| bottom of column 2 |
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| top of column 3 |
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| bottom of column 3 |
And today:
Besides the buildings I've pictured, there are several others in town that date back from 1885 (the A.M.E. Church) to 1918 (the school district building). There are still people living here, but it's a shadow of its former self and I don't think there are any businesses here. Having the Park Service here may help, and after the virus is under control maybe tourism can be catered to more. Hard to tell right now what the future will be.
Back on the road
I've been seeing Meadowlarks by the basketful, it seems, and hearing them sing. I finally looked it up and, sure enough, they're the state bird of Kansas.
I've passed so many fields of maize today I started figuring Kansas must be the US's largest producer, but I can't get the information from the internet because it conflates maize with corn in general. They grow a lot of it here, though.
Speaking of pheasants, I had one play chicken with me along here. They're such big birds - 33" - 10" taller than a Roadrunner - and when I saw this one standing by the side of the road I thought at first it was a Roadrunner. When I got closer, though, I could see by the coloring what it was. Seeing it standing there, I started to slow down, and then it started out across the road, then stopped, and then ran all the way across, and with all those stops and starts, it was really hard for me to avoid him. But I did.
Passing through the small town of Stockton (pop. 1,300) I saw The M Motel, which had a sign saying "Taylor Swift Stayed Here." I guess that was before she became a superstar.
The even tinier town of Alton (pop. 103) was once known as Bull City (a sign says so). Another sign says it was the birthplace of Russell Stover (of candy fame). But there sure isn't much there now.
I heard someone being interviewed on the radio, talking about the Transition Integrity Project, which I hadn't heard about. This speaker asserted the project consisted of a shadowy group of elites who concocted a plan to spread disinformation about the election to undermine Trump's campaign. One thing he noted in particular was the plan, he said, for Biden to concede, then retract his concession, get supporters to demonstrate and try to steal the election. It's true, he said. Go read the document. And the Biden people were all right there in the room when this was being put together. He then went on to say that the Trump campaign has things exactly where they want them and anticipate a Trump landslide. I turned off the radio.
But I also looked up this Transition Integrity Project. Far from being a shadowy group, it's a bipartisan group that spanned all facets of public and private life that were concerned the Trump administration might try to undermine the election and the electoral process and come up with ways to mitigate any possible actions along those lines. They gamed out 4 scenarios: an ambiguous result with an Electoral College tie; a clear Biden victory; a clear Trump win; and a narrow Biden victory. It's really a fascinating document, with the obvious main concern of avoiding as much chaos in our country as is legally possible. But since we all see things through the lenses of our own world view, there are some (e.g. Breitbart) who ignore the parts of this where Trump's team takes all manner of morally and legally questionable actions and instead focus on the parts about Biden. If you're interested, here's a link. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/read-the-transition-integrity-projects-full-report
I passed a place with a sign: "Alpaca Store" and "North 40 Alpacas." So that's something else they grow in this state.
I passed 2 fields where they were harvesting maize. And oncoming traffic included a piece of agricultural equipment as wide as an entire 2-lane highway. Okay for my side because it drove on the shoulder, so it overlapped my lane by just a little and I could get by. I don't think there can be any question that this is primarily an agricultural state.
We came to Downs, that claims to be the "Home of Kevin Saunders, World Champion Wheelchair Athlete." They had a really nice city park with a sign saying "3 nights camping maximum." Pretty generous. No hookups, but still, it's free. The park was part of an athletic complex, and at the dressing room (I guess) I saw an unusual sign:
World's Largest Ball of Twine
Really. That's what I came here for. From the sublime (Nicodemus) to the ridiculous (Cawker City's twine).
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| The city built a pavilion to house it. This is a side view. |
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| Claim 1 |
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| Claim 2 |
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| the front view (it's October, after all) |
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| to prove it's really twine |
And they had a display of photos showing the evolution of this ball of twine as it grew and grew over the years. I guess having a hobby is important.
Back on the roads
North from Downs on K-181, I passed all farm land - grain (likely wheat), corn, maize and cows. Scattered farmhouses.
A woodpecker flew across the road in front of me.
Up to Lebanon, which claims to be the Center of the 48 States. Which is pushing it a little. That's 2 more miles down the road.
Geographic Center of the Continental US
At least, that's what the sign says. Since Alaska's on this continent but isn't included in this measurement, it should read Geographic Center of the 48 States, which is what a sign at the actual location says.
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| the welcome mat |
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| the monument (see detail below) |
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| the plaque on the monument (above) |
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| enlargement from the plaque |
Apparently, they really did measure this. It wasn't just an eyeball thing.
The man that happened to be in that monument photo was here with his family. He and I exchanged greetings and I asked how he was. His answer: "Blessed. Highly Favored." What an answer!
Once again on the road
As I was driving east on US 36 toward the campground, I realized all that corn I've been passing wasn't just dead cornstalks. There were ears of corn still on those plants, and I finally figured that out when I saw them being harvested. Passing these fields at highway speeds, I hadn't been able to see the ears amid all the dead/dying foliage. But when I saw the harvesting and realized they weren't just mowing down the cornstalks, I could finally see the ears.
I started feeling a very strong crosswind and thought it odd that I hadn't felt it when I was on US 24, also an east/west highway. I don't know if the wind just picked up or if there's some geographical feature that blocked it.
I started seeing fields of sunflowers, as far as the eye could see. The wild sunflower is Kansas's state flower.
I saw a sign advertising the National Orphan Train Museum in Concordia. Orphan Trains rang a bell but I couldn't quite remember why so I looked up both them and the museum. The museum's website seems to take a self-righteous stance about this practice, intended as a social welfare program and lasting from 1854 until 1929. The Wikipedia page seems to take a reasonably balanced view on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/Orphan-Train
We stopped at the city park in Mankato to walk around before we got to tonight's campground. The road there ran due north almost to Nebraska.
For this state park, Google almost hemorrhaged trying to give directions, which turned out to be vaguely accurate in that a road they insisted I'd drive 4 miles on either didn't exist or was somewhere else, and instead one they barely mentioned was the main road into the park instead of the non-existent one.
This time there wasn't any mix-up about my campsite, but the park didn't have a detailed map, which left me to find the site by myself. I had to drive around the entire area several times before I could (a) find it and (b) figure out how to get into it. I've never seen a more illogically laid out campground, which is saying something. But we got there anyway, despite these setbacks.
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