Porterville

Porterville was little more than a house on the corner and an old, ruined church with ivy growing all over it. Like several other vanishing places in Bourbon County, it has never really been much more than a post office... and the post office closed in 1905.

Tired out from our adventures, we headed home for some rest. We had a lot of fun in Fort Scott, but we haven't found much else in Bourbon County that would be worth our while to visit again.

Hiattville

In Hiattville, we saw many older homes, some well-kept lawns, and a quaint country church with a smiley face painted on its propane tank.

This town was once much more populous and prosperous than it is today. However, it was not immune from the common trend of urbanization that has smitten so many of the small towns in Kansas. It simply doesn't make economic sense for a lot of these towns to continue on, and so they slowly decline. The presence of the church here is a hopeful sign, because it helps to maintain a sense of community.

See this paper for more information on the history and decline of Hiattville.

Pawnee Station

In Pawnee Station, we saw an old school and a church, along with some small houses and trailers. Like many of the small towns around here, it seems never to have been very large. (In 1910, it had a population of 87.)

Myrick was the only one who got out of the van here, mostly because he the only kid still awake! The rest of us were tuckered out from our exciting day.

There's a lot of grassland in this area, as well as a lot of cattle. There are also many trees and creeks in this part of Kansas. It's refreshing to drive through country like this, especially in contrast to the bare, open plains of western Kansas.

Garland

Garland is a small community that was apparently named after a brand of stoves. It has a church, a lodge, a community center, a fire station, and some old, decaying buildings in the middle of the woods. It's a quiet little town right on the Missouri border.

Godfrey

Godfrey was just a few houses along Highway 7. It used to be a coal town and even had a post office, but it closed in 1901. The most interesting thing we saw there was an abandoned house where cattails and lilies were growing in the swampy ditch.

Edward

Edward is hard to find. So hard, in fact, that I'm still not sure I found it! My phone's GPS seems to think I did, though, and that's good enough for me. (From my later research online, it seems this town was probably never much more than a railroad branch.)

To get there, I had to hike about a quarter mile through a field of wildflowers and tallgrass and hop a barbed wire fence. There, I found a railroad junction, which seemed as likely a location as any for a mythical ghost town. I took a selfie there right as a coal train was coming through, then trudged back through the field toward the minivan and more adventures.

Fort Scott

Fort Scott has a lot of beautiful old homes.

We really liked La Hacienda, in the downtown area!

Fort Scott was a lot of fun! We arrived in the evening, had a nice meal at La Hacienda, a local Mexican restaurant (fitting, since it was Cinco de Mayo), and checked into our hotel. Or tried to check into our hotel, at
any rate. The desk clerk was not very skilled with figuring out online reservations, and then she gave us the wrong room. All of this meant that bedtime was shifted from an already-late 9:30 back to nearly 11 p.m.!

Finally, we did get things figured out, and had a good night's sleep. We arose bright and early the next morning to begin exploring the town.

We began by grabbing some breakfast burritos at Sonic, then drove along the main historic streets to explore the town a bit. It has many beautifully maintained Victorian houses, some of which have even been transformed into restaurants or B&Bs.

The kids did great while waiting for Dad to get the room
straightened out.

One thing that piqued our curiosity was the Real School of Hard Knocks. We didn't know what it was, but apparently it's an old school building that has been converted into a concert venue, AirSoft range, and four-wheeler track.

Next, we stopped by the Farmer's Market, where we got some miniature pies for breakfast. After looking at all of the stalls, we headed over to the historic site of Fort Scott. The buildings and grounds there have been lovingly restored to how they looked in the 19th Century. The kids were excited to explore them, especially because at the end of our adventure, they were sworn in as Junior Park Rangers. While we were there, we learned a lot about the town's role in westward expansion, Bleeding Kansas, and the Civil War.

I hadn't known this before, but Fort Scott was originally supposed to be part of the Permanent Indian Frontier, which was designed to insulate native peoples and white settlers from each other. As with so many promises made by the U.S. government to native peoples, however, this one melted away under white settlers' pressure to continue westward expansion.

We all got a lot of exercise touring the fort.

We couldn't resist stopping in at Books and Grannies, a delightful used book shop, before leaving town. It was a perfect way to end our fun visit to this historic community.

The fort was very educational... and FUN!

We loved Books and Grannies! Granny Roxine is so sweet,
and she has a great selection of books.