Diamond Springs

Diamond Springs is a ghost town and is now located on private property. We did see a historical marker commemorating it, as well as an old cemetery. 

In the surrounding fields, we saw wheat, hay fields, and a wooden-post fence with cattle inside. Meadowlarks flitted from post to post in the May sunshine. We also noticed lots of turkey vultures riding the thermals above the fields.

We noticed a really pretty house with a sign out front: Wm. Atkinson and Sons. I couldn't find much about Mr. Atkinson, except in this interesting article about the town of Burdick, which suggests he may have had some questionable business practices.

Most of the land in this area is fenced in and bears signs announcing that it is the property of "Diamond Creek Ranch - No Trespassing."

Fidelity (The Return)

 

We finally made it to Fidelity after our previous disastrous attempt in July 2019, in which I got stuck in the mud just west of Bittersweet Road, tore off our van's bumper, and had to walk to Highway 75 in flip flops and jeans over the gravel roads. 

But, as I said, we finally made it! St. Augustine's Church is lovely, and the graveyard across the street was full of flags in preparation for Memorial Day.

The fields in the surrounding countryside were full of old cornstalks cut short in last fall's harvest. The day was cloudy, but sharp shafts of sunlight blazed down through gaps in the clouds. 

We explored the cemetery, pausing at tombstones that caught our interest. We were especially saddened by the ones where babies were buried - young lives snuffed out by disease long before their old age. Lila Wiltz was one such: She lived from 1919 to 1920. Another tombstone proclaimed simply, "Bakers Infants, 1941-1941." So much heartache expressed in so few characters carved into stone!

As we were wandering through the graveyard, we noticed that a lady had come out onto the porch of a neighboring home. It was Mrs. Meyer, who lives in the old "Sister House" across the street from the church. She has lived alone there for the past three years since being widowed. She was wondering if we wanted to look around inside the building; she had the key.

We definitely wanted to look inside, and so we took her up on her offer. Within the church, we could feel and smell the age of the place. The wooden fixtures had the fine patina that only generations of hands can lend. The walls had pictures of the nuns who had served the people of this community as teachers before living out their twilight years in the Sister House.

It was a good way to spend Memorial Day, when we remember the people we have loved and lost, but also when we remember our own coming deaths. This little town -- what's left of it, anyway -- definitely has the feeling of a place that is dying, and so it led our hearts to consider our own mortality, as well as what lies on the Other Side.

Cherokee

 

Just outside of Cherokee, we crossed some dead train tracks, where I found two beautiful ladies posing, so I figured I'd snap their picture before we moved on.

A little further on, we saw some cats crossing the road, whereupon they turned to each other and began to lick one another diligently. "Look, Daddy!" the kids said, "Kissin' kitties!"

Cherokee itself boasts several churches, a cemetery, a downtown area with some thriving shops, a school, a city hall, and a number of small houses (some in good repair, others not so much). 

We were surprised at how busy First Baptist Church was in Cherokee -- It seemed like there were more people in that parking lot than lived in the whole town.

Langdon

 

Langdon was just a neighborhood with a cemetery, the Cobb Bros. Lumber Company, cattle in a field, and some farms. There wasn't really even a good place to park for a cemetery selfie.

Kniveton

The fields around Kniveton are sown in winter wheat. When we came through, we saw carpets of green stretching out to the horizon on either side of the gravel road. We also saw fields of haybales with a "for sale by owner" sign offering them up to any willing bidder.

Kniveton itself was hard to find; it was really just a few farms strung along the gravel road adjacent to the highway. There was an old railroad depot, and we think the old cemetery we saw down the road used to be called Crocker Cemetery.

In so many of these small dead or dying communities across the state, we see markers of former glory slowly fading away. The farm where we stopped to take our picture had a sign on the fence boasting that it had won the Kansas Bankers Association Award for Soil Conservation in 1983. It felt a lot like the towns that have signs by the road boasting of their winning basketball team in the 1970s. 

Hamlin

Hamlin is an itty bitty town, boasting a population of just 46 in the 2010 census. This is quite a step down from the 1910 census figure of 208.

Interestingly, Ellen Palmer Allerton, the poet who I mentioned in our post about Padonia, is apparently buried in Hamlin's cemetery. Though maybe it's not that interesting -- I guess we all have to get buried somewhere.

By the time we rolled through, the rain had stopped and the kids were sleeping, so Magen and I got to take a selfie. There wasn't much more to the town than the grain elevator you see in the background, but there was a mighty pretty lady there for a little while at least. (And no, I'm not referring to Ellen Palmer Allerton's corpse.)

Big Springs

Big Springs is a small town with a rich history going back to the mid-nineteenth century. When we visited, we saw a water tower with worn lettering, a quarry, a Methodist church, and a few small businesses.

Like many small towns in Kansas, Big Springs has seen better days. A few charming older homes remain, along with some that aren't in quite such good shape. We enjoyed visiting the peaceful, well-kept cemetery a few miles out of town.

Moray

Moray is a tiny, unincorporated town -- all we found there were a cemetery and an old building that looks like it was once a railroad depot. We did see some really beautiful markers in the cemetery, though.

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.

LeRoy

LeRoy is a modest little town with a library, senior center, cafe, bars, schools, shops, and a historic downtown area.

On our way into town, Magen took grim amusement in the fact that the cemetery was located right next to Reaper Road.

We were interested to see that an old church had been converted into a store called "Barbie and More."

In one of the parks, we saw a memorial building with a funny name. It turns out that it was a memorial to the Muscogee Creek chief and orator Opothleyahola. Pretty cool for a history nerd like me!

We also saw a beef jerky factory founded by a man named (no kidding) Martin Luther with some fascinating yard art outside. The boys especially enjoyed the enormous wooden rocking chair.

Downtown, they have a large, colorful mural. We've seen this in a couple of other SE Kansas towns, as well. It seems like a fun way to hark back to the town's roots.

LeRoy does have a small co-op, and of course the railroad also runs through town. Much of the farmland around here is peppered with small -- almost portable-looking -- oil wells, pumping slowly away. They look like they haven't changed much lately, and neither has the town itself.

Overall, I'd say that the cool-stuff-to-see ratio was pretty high in this fun little town. A great start to our Southeast Kansas trip!

Barclay

Barclay is now a ghost town. There wasn't a lot around, but we did see an aged cemetery and some farms. There was also a large old building with "Barclay" etched near the top of its stone wall. (It looks like this was the old high school.) Not much else was here.

Here's an article on the history and remnants of Barclay.

Arvonia

Arvonia is a cute little village with historic buildings and nice homes ranging from modest to imposing. The town itself is pretty much gone, but there is a thriving historical society. It has a Welsh background, according to the signage there. There were also a church, a schoolhouse, a well, and a cemetery: All very old and well-preserved. 

We saw a fun little house with a sign proclaiming it to be the Creative Cottage. I'm not sure what it is or why it's there, and Googling didn't help me solve that mystery. Kind of makes you wonder...

At some point in the future, it would be fun to see if there are tours of the area.

Hiawatha

Hiawatha is a quiet town at the intersection of two main highways. In rural Kansas, that's often the predictor of whether a town will survive or slowly die off.

The town is pretty large for the area, with a hospital, lake, and many businesses. It seems to be doing pretty well.

We were tired after a long day, so we didn't do as much exploring as we hoped to. My one regret was that we missed visiting the Davis Memorial in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Since this town is at such a major intersection, I'm sure we'll be back to see it again someday.

St. Benedict

St. Benedict is a cute little town whose main attraction is St. Mary's Catholic Church. We wanted very much to go inside, but there was a wedding, so we couldn't. Fortunately, there are several websites that have pictures, including this one, this one, and this one. But maybe the best photos I found were on this flickr site!

Though we didn't get to go inside, we did look around the lovely grounds and cemetery. It was pretty well kept, though I noticed a cross had fallen off of (or been removed from) a 19th-century gravestone.

One fun thing about this one was that my selfie was lit from behind, which made me look a bit like a saint myself!

We'd like to come back sometime to see the beautiful inside of this historic church on the prairie.

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.

Louisville

On the road from Newbury to Louisville, we crossed Correction Road not once, not twice, but three times. I guess whatever they were trying to "Correct" was not cooperating with their efforts.


Soybean fields lined the road, peppered with occasional dried-out cornstalks left over from the last harvest. The young bean plants reached up eagerly toward the intermittent raindrops, keen to drink all they could before the long, hot July ahead.

Louisville, like so many small Kansas towns, seems a bit rundown and is losing residents. However, a few things made me think they are doing their best in the face of the grim future.

Downtown, an old school building has been transformed into a thrift shop. It's a great way to repurpose the space, and it seemed to be pretty well-stocked (though it wasn't open while we were in town).

Outside the thrift shop, there was a little park with lots of big tractor tires. It also had a dilapidated old slide in a grievous state of disrepair, but someone cared enough to block it off with orange safety fencing so adventurous children wouldn't hurt themselves on it.

And in the cemetery just outside of town, we were both impressed and amused by the number of trash barrels and signs admonishing visitors not to litter. It has to be some kind of cemetery record for number of trash barrels per square foot. Of course, the cemetery was not without its problems -- someone apparently took liberties with the orientation of a gravestone in the not-too-distant past.

All in all, Louisville wasn't in bad shape. Not too much going on, but the folks there seem to take some pride in their community.