Girard

Girard is the county seat of Crawford County. Out in front of the county courthouse is a nice big lawn, complete with a gazebo and a helicopter on display honoring the town's veterans. 

Downtown are some shops and a bar called "Bender on 7." The town also has a park, a swimming pool, and a lovely sesquicentennial display of decorative quilt squares.

Perhaps surprisingly to those who know Kansas as a solid "Red State" Republican party holdout, Girard used to be a bastion of the Socialist Party, especially from the 1890s through the 1920s. Fred Warren, a citizen of Girard, commissioned Upton Sinclair to write The Jungle, and the notorious Socialist politician Eugene V. Debs lived in the town in the early 1900s. 

 

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. 

Baxter Junction

 

We found Baxter Junction on our map of Kansas, and even on Google Maps, but when we arrived at the spot, it was little more than a stop on the railroad, with a grain elevator near the tracks. We were lucky enough to see a train come through while we were there. This was pretty fortunate, since it seems like that's about all there is going on at Baxter Junction!

Muscotah

Muscotah is a baseball town, largely because it was the home of the famed Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker. As we drove into town, we saw this yard with a rose garden reminiscent of a wooden backstop, metal silhouettes of ball players, and an epic garden shed shaped like a baseball (including "stitches" made of red rebar). Here's an interesting post relating to how this baseball was made.

No one was home at this house, so we didn't stay long, but the kids couldn't resist mimicking the poses of the lawn ornaments, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this remarkable shed. (Which, it turns out, was originally a water tower tank!)

In the city park, there's a monument to Tinker, as well as a mural featuring him, Evers, and Chance (the other two ballplayers who were part of the same immortal double play).

The homes in this town were modest and well-maintained, and the lawns were neatly trimmed. The town roads were gravel.

On the edge of town, we saw a beautiful old ruined church, though there's also a nice Church of Christ building in Muscotah as well.

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.)

Padonia

Even in some of the earliest histories of Kansas, Padonia is mentioned as a township where businesses and services were declining. Today, it is more or less a ghost town. Only a small group of houses and a grain elevator and remain, though in the past it also had a mill.

We've loved seeing the kids get old enough to take their own pictures on these little trips. On this occasion, it was raining quite a bit, so the kids did all the photography in the rain while Magen and I stayed in the van and cuddled. Pretty convenient for the parents of this outfit!

One of the most famous residents of Padonia was the poet Ellen Palmer Allerton, who arrived in a covered wagon in 1879. Two of her poetry collections are available on Google Books: Annabel, and Other Poems and Walls of Corn and Other Poems. Here are some lovely lines from "Annabel" that capture the sense of place that permeates her poetry:

Look there, my friend, through yonder clump of trees. 

You see yon lofty, weather-beaten wall?

You hear the hum of wheels, the broken fall 

Of pent up waters borne along the breeze? 

That is the old brown mill. Its walls have stood 

While children's children have grown old and gray, 

While ruthless axes have hewn down the wood,

And yonder town has grown, rood after rood, 

The mill has stood there as it stands today.

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!

Mingo

Western Kansas has a lot of small towns that aren't much more than a co-op, a church or two, and perhaps a couple of businesses.

Mingo was one of these. We didn't see any businesses, but it definitely had a grain elevator and a small church.

Sometimes, I get depressed by towns like this one. They're growing smaller each day, and before too long, perhaps no one will be left. It feels like the life is slowly draining out of them, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop the trend.

But to stop there is to forget that these towns are populated by a heroic people.

Farmers, ranchers, teachers, business owners, and many others are still there, and they will hang on to the end. Like the stalwart defenders at the Alamo or the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, these folks aren't contented to go gentle into that good night.

They are determined to keep living on their ancestral land, to keep sowing and harvesting, and, in short, to keep doing what they can to maintain the way of life they love.

And dedication like that, my friends, is something worth driving out to Mingo to see.

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.

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.