From Cuba to Lebanon
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Last week, as you may recall, I left you in Haddam, Kansas, which, in 1901, was home to elected women officials and unruly men.
That was just one of nearly two dozen towns that Dave and I toured on our recent journey north and west.
But at this point we hadn’t traveled very far — we were still only in Washington County — with miles to go before we slept.
Continuing along U.S. Highway 36, we found Cuba — but no cigars.
“Czech us out,” suggests their welcome sign, so we wandered around the town of Cuba (pop. 211).
Photographer Jim Richardson, who grew up in nearby Belleville, made Cuba into a poster town which reflects the dwindling population on the Great Plains. Richardson’s words and photos are featured in a May 2004 spread in National Geographic Magazine.
Heading west, we stopped in Belleville and photographed the art deco Republic County Courthouse. There was a stark contrast between the glaring white courthouse and the dirt brown lawn that was being reseeded.
On the south side of the square sits the Blair Theatre. This 1928 building with a Spanish Colonial façade was recently renovated.
Our next town was Mankato, the gem of Jewell County.
There, we found a tiny 6-legged pig in a jar! And a 1902 Mosely Folding Bathtub! And a mastodon bone! Treasures abound in the Jewell County Museum.
Also in the museum is an 1895 quilt consisting of 900 tiny triangles. A person’s first and last names are embroidered on each red or white triangle. It’s a census provided by the Rockdale Ladies Aid.
Curator Karen Boden, pointed out these museum highlights, but the building was full of furniture, clothing, household items and lots of other old stuff. Really old stuff, if you count mastodon bones.
Boden moved here 35 years ago from North Dakota after marrying her Kansas farmer husband. They recently planted the year’s winter wheat. And for 20 years they’ve raised sunflowers for the oil.
Boden, also the cosmetologist at a nursing home, seems to enjoy her job as museum curator. But the museum work is seasonal. The place closes for the winter because heating the two-story building is impractical.
On to Smith County.
One of the sites I had looked forward to visiting was a spot just outside Lebanon (pop. 279). Apparently the actual location is on private property, but at the end of the mile-long Kansas Highway 191 is a flagpole and monument representing the geographic center of the United States.
If you had, say, a cardboard cutout of the 48 contiguous states and balanced this cutout on the point of a pencil, then that pencil point would reflect this location near Lebanon, Kansas.
It was a beautiful day at the center of the universe. On the quiet rise, we could see the hardscrabble town of Lebanon off in the distance. Flies buzzed around the tiny shelter house and the even tinier 4-seat chapel. There was not a lick of wind moving the leaves on the locust trees. The flag was furled.
While Lebanon is the geographic center of the US, the geodetic center of the country is about 42 miles south of here. The geodetic center was once the point toward which all surveyors gazed.
But any way you draw the lines, Kansas is indeed Midway U.S.A. (as our license tags once proclaimed.) The long-ago Sen. James J. Ingalls called Kansas “the navel of the nation.”
We stopped in Lebanon’s grocery store to check out their souvenir stash: Spoons, magnets, bumper stickers and postcards.
After a quick spin through Smith Center, Dave and I continued westbound. Flying past the tiny town of Athol, I saw something that made me slam on the brakes.
Next: On the banks of Beaver Creek.
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
- Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.