Miles to go
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
THERE’S a town on the Kansas map named Bucyrus.
Bucyrus isn’t listed on the map’s index of cities, so apparently it’s not incorporated; nevertheless, it’s a dot on the map in Miami County. I wonder what a place called Bucyrus looks like. Sooner or later, I’ll get there.
Some people assume that just because I’ve rattled on and on about Kansas places in this column for six years, that Dave and I have been everywhere and have seen everything.
We haven’t seen everything, far from it. We have visited and viewed only a smidgen of this great state. There are still many empty pages in my “been there, done that” notebook of Kansas.
This is a fairly large state to cover. Kansas stretches 417 miles from east to west and runs about 211 miles from Nebraska to Oklahoma. We have more than 135,000 miles of public roadway.
I can truthfully say that after years of exploring the state, that I’m still just as excited as ever about “the next town.”
If there’s a downside to exploring Kansas, it’s that when Dave and I visit one town or place, it often means foregoing another. There’s only so much time on any particular trip.
I feel a twinge of sadness when we bypass a town. Last summer, while headed to Winfield, Dave and I toured Smileyberg (a very short tour), we spent time taking photographs of downtown Douglass, and we paused in a place called Rock.
As we continued south on U.S. 77, I noticed a sign pointing to the right toward Udall. Udall is a town that made tornadoes famous back in 1955. I wanted to veer off to the west and take a look.
But it was lunchtime; we were hungry and kept driving toward Winfield.
“Some other time,” I said. “We’ll catch you later, Udall.”
On May 25, 1955, the Cowley County town of Udall was clobbered by a twister. The town has a memorial naming 77 people who died in the storm. About 270 residents were injured. It was reported that 362 structures were destroyed and that only one home was inhabitable after the tornado.
Despite the total devastation, the town of Udall survived. According to the current Kansas map, the town now has 766 people (more than the 610 residents at the time of the storm.)
Someday, I’ll make it to Udall. And I want to drive through the Red Hills west of Medicine Lodge, and also see Arikaree Breaks in the northwest corner of the state where Kansas kisses Nebraska and Colorado.
I’d like to visit the Sternberg Museum at Ft. Hays State University to see the Kansas sea monsters (or what’s left of them.)
There are dozens of courthouses I have yet to photograph. My favorites are the old buildings with the turrets. But not all courthouses are handsome. I have to say that the Cold War era was not a shining period for courthouse architecture.
The Kansas map features many points of interest. You’ll find a symbol on the map that represents museum locations. State historic sites are printed in red. And the old trails are marked; the Lewis and Clark, Oregon, Santa Fe, Chisholm, and Western Trails can all be found on the map.
The Pony Express Route runs through the northeast part of the state and is something I’d like to investigate.
Dave and I have visited the John Brown State Historic Site in Osawatomie, but not the Mine Creek Battlefield near Pleasanton.
We toured the Eisenhower Center in Abilene last spring, but missed the Museum of Independent Telephony (love that name), the Greyhound Hall of Fame and the Vintage Fashion Museum also in Abilene.
Inside the folds of the map, there are countless things to see and do in Kansas. It’ll take time to get to everything, but I’m willing to give it a shot — as soon as we get some good traveling weather.
Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
Posted by madpoet (anonymous) on February 3, 2009 at 3:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Next time you're in Cowley County, maybe you could detour to Burden. A quaint little town. I've never heard the story of why it's named "Burden" but it should be a good one. Just like Winfield was named after a minister so he would come and establish a church in the new town. No joke.
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)