Tecumseh

We go to Tecumseh all the time, so we wouldn't normally put it on our list of towns to visit. One balmy evening in February, though, we visited a cemetery there that we'd never really noticed before. We were on our way from Topeka to Lawrence on Highway 40, and we noticed a sign that simply said "Bauer" alongside the road. 

Well, being in the mood to look around, we got out of the van and did just that. We found that several families are all buried there together. Some of the graves are from the 1800s. The boys really enjoyed looking at all the different graves and reading the names of the people who are buried there, and we also had fun trying to guess at the relationships between the various deceased folks.

Grove

Grove didn't have much besides a township hall / fire station. We did see some beautiful countryside, creeks, an old one-lane bridge, and the summer moon high over a cornfield as the sunlight waned in the western sky.

One other funny thing we noticed was a sign forbidding trespassing, except by written permission. In other words, if you want to violate the sanctity of someone else's  property, please be sure to plan ahead!

Elmont

Elmont is a quiet little town with a church, an elementary school, and a number of small, modest houses. I loved the orange lilies growing by the roadside near many of the homes. 

We stopped outside the elementary school, where some summer construction was going on, and tried to get a good picture of our very wiggly boys. I'm not sure how successful we were at that, but I think we at least got one with minimal blur.

One other thing we noticed in town was Elmont Classics, a local business that restores classic cars. When Myrick heard the name of the business, he thought it might be "a place in Elmont where they sing classical music." He dubiously accepted our alternative explanation, though.

Menoken

We decided to go for an evening drive through Menoken Township. Just south of the township, we saw a historical marker for a Kaw village that was unearthed during construction of a nearby highway. The village was led by Fool Chief, who was perhaps named thus for his foolhardy bravery.

The township meeting place is in the office of a beautiful, well-cared for historic cemetery. There were graves there dating well into the 19th century. This led our boys to ask a lot of questions about death. We also talked about the resurrection, when, as Myrick says, the dead will rise with "bodies that won't get killed."

The boys' favorite grave was one with a horse etched on it. It appears to be the grave of someone who is much loved and missed.

In the countryside nearby, we saw farms with corn, cows, and lots of nice homes.

As we topped a hill, we slowed down to avoid hitting a lost fluffy dog. The sweet lady in the red car ahead of us stopped to get it off the road. She asked us if we knew whose it was, and we regretfully informed her we weren't from around there. She resolved to knock on doors until she found its owner. We hope she was successful.

Kiro

Kiro was hard to find. We tried to stop through on our way home from Silver Lake, but we just didn't see it. There simply weren't any signs marking this little town just off of Highway 24.

We found it the next time we passed through, with the help of our faithful friend, Google Maps.

We didn't see any signs on Highway 24 for Kiro, but it was mentioned on a couple of signs for a seed company and a fertilizer company near this railroad crossing on Huxman Road. There are also a few small houses in the area, as well as a daycare. A road named Kiro Court is nearby, too.

Next to the businesses by the railroad crossing, there's an old Union Pacific depot with an unused sidetrack nearby. our older boys had fun playing on the sidetrack, and our little one had fun eating his lunch in the van while they played.


It's almost as hard to find anything out about this little spot on the map as it is to find the town itself. According to Grain and Farm Service Centers, Vol. 31, The Kiro Mercantile Cooperative was admitted to the Kansas Association of Grain Dealers in 1913. Grant Elwood Kelsey was one of this company's organizers.

Besides the Mercantile Cooperative, Kiro's other claim to fame is that a proposed dam there sparked a controversy during the Great Depression, as mentioned on the City of Topeka's website:

The well attended meeting was then opened to public comment. Almost immediately, a question was asked by a member of the Kiro Dam Association, a support group, why no mention had been made of the Kiro Dam and reservoir. Col. Hodgson explained that under Public Law 308, the Comprehensive Planning Act of 1927, the Kiro location was investigated but that the rules established by the Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1936 requiring the project benefits to equal or exceed its costs, prohibited the Corps from considering Kiro. He said that the estimated cost of the Kiro Dam and Reservoir was $67,000,000 and the benefits to Topeka were only $2,600,000.

The transcript of the hearing indicated that some strong feelings were expressed about the absence of the Kiro Dam in the protection plan presented by the Corps of Engineers. R.M. Owthwaite, General Manager of the John Morrell Packing plant and President of the Topeka Chamber of Commerce apparently became concerned that the meeting was getting off track. He arose to recommend that the Corps had a plan (Plan "B") before the group which could be built immediately, even if not completely adequate, and that the community accept this plan. Finally a motion was made to accept the Corps' plan and the City and other public agencies involved, be urged to give the Corps the official assurances needed. The motion carried by the raising of hands and the hearing was concluded. It was evident that not everyone was happy with the outcome of the hearing.

It seems that Kiro, like so many old Kansas towns, was once the center of great hope. These days, the only remaining tokens of that hope are a few old buildings and a railroad crossing.

Silver Lake

Magen had never been to Silver Lake, and it had been years since I last visited. (I do, however, have very happy memories of swim parties at a friend's house there when I was in high school.)

Our initial plan for lunch was to visit the Silver Lake Chinese American Restaurant (whose front window humbly suggests that the passerby should try the Best Chinese Food). Some of our friends swear by it, so we were excited about going.

Regrettably, the restaurant was not open for lunch on Saturday, so we had to do some poking around to find another acceptable lunch spot. Our choices were Gambino's Pizza or a somewhat sketchy-looking Mexican place next to the gas station. We chose the former.

Gambino's served up some mighty fine pizza in short order, even though they'd had a flooding problem that morning (they still had a fan running in the corner of the dining area to dry the carpet). The men's room was clean and tidy, which was nice because our 4-year-old had to go twice while we were there.

After a while, Magen went out to the van to feed the baby, leaving me and the older boys with 6 slices of pizza. She was hoping we would leave her some, but we were HUNGRY after all that hiking and geocaching, so she was disappointed when we came out with empty hands (and full tummies).

In this picture of the 2-year-old, you can see smudges from our hike, pizza sauce from our lunch, and the smile of a tired, contented boy. Magen considers this to be evidence of a pretty successful Kansas adventure. I must say I agree.

Total mileage today: 41.9

Willard & Uniontown

We'd seen the Willard exit on I-70 hundreds of times, and even driven through the town several times, but we had never gotten out of the car there before. Unfortunately, there's not much to see in Willard itself: It is comprised mainly of homes and churches (and one home that looks like it used to be a church).

We did see an interesting sign in town for the Herbert Reinhard Green Wildlife Area, so we followed a hilly dirt road until we found it.

The wildlife area is located at the top of a hill across the road from a private cemetery. It turns out that this cemetery is all that remains of Uniontown, a settlement that was the largest in Kansas during the 1850s. It was burnt to the ground... twice. (You can read more about Uniontown's history on the Parks site, and here's another article about it hosted by Washburn.edu.)

We decided to hike through the wildlife area (which the Green family donated to the state and asked to be declared a refuge, with no hunting allowed). We also thought it would be a good opportunity to try our hand at geocaching, since the Uniontown Gold geocache was located in the refuge.*

The first half of our adventure was delightful. We really enjoyed seeing the Green family's old farm implements, and the trail was easy and well maintained. There were even some benches to rest on. As our treasure hunt continued, though, a few problems arose.

 First, our 2-year-old got tired of hiking, so he started crying whenever he wasn't riding on my shoulders. Then, our hunt for the geocache took us off the trail. This was a bit painful since none of us really had appropriate hiking shoes on.

My flipflop-clad feet attracted thorns at an alarming rate, and our 4-year-old accumulated numerous scratches on his legs. It also wasn't the easiest terrain for a momma in flipflops to navigate while wearing a baby in a Mobi wrap.

We were also a little leery of poison ivy. We didn't see much of it, but we did see enough to make me nervous about letting the boys go ahead of me.

After making our way through a couple of painful briar patches, we finally arrived at the treasure chest. The boys enjoyed the fast food kids' meal toys we found in it, and Magen and I enjoyed turning around to go back toward the car. The hike back was a bit more miserable because of our scratches and the boys' insistence on being carried. (They took turns riding on my shoulders.)

At last, we made it back to our climate-controlled, thorn-free van. We'd had a good time, but we were also glad for it to be done. Next time we go geocaching, we will be sure to dress more appropriately for the adventure. (We will also dress to repel ticks, as we found 2 of the little bloodsuckers on our 4-year-old's back at bathtime.)

* We had tried to go geocaching as we were leaving Topeka, but the cache we tried was hidden near a pretty busy golf course.  After dodging a few shots from the fairway, we decided we would rather run away and live to search another day.

Wakarusa

Magen attended an elementary school not far from Wakarusa. She remembers sleeping over at a friend's house there. It sticks out in her memory because the friend's family kept a pet pig in the house. Regrettably, that is the most interesting thing I can say about this tiny town.

According to this article, it seems like Wakarusa would have been a good place to visit about a hundred years ago.*

Today, though, the grain elevator and cider mill are hollow skeletons, and the stores and other commercial endeavors are a distant and (one imagines) fond memory. The houses are old, and some of the yards are unkempt.**

The whole town felt worn out, much as we were at the end of our day of exploration. So perhaps it was a fitting end to this week's Kansas Adventures.

Total distance today: 77.5 miles.


* In case of stale links, here is an excerpt of the article:

Wakarusa, a little town in Shawnee county, is located in Williamsport township on the Wakarusa river and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., 12 miles south of Topeka, the county seat. It has a grain elevator, a cider mill, a number of stores, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. It is a popular summer camping place for Topeka people, and a large camp is maintained throughout the season by the Young Women's Christian Association. This is a receiving and shipping point for a large and prosperous farming district. The population in 1910 was 150. The town was founded in 1858 by two men named Mills and Smith, and was at first named Kingston in honor of Zenas King, one of the parties interested. The postoffice had already been established under the name of Wakarusa and the name of the town was changed to correspond.
Page 854 from volume II of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed July 2002 by Carolyn Ward.

** Full disclosure: our yard is 100% unkempt, so this is really just a case of me having a log in my own eye.