Elmdale

On our way to a friend's high school musical Marion, we stopped through Elmdale, which we had seen many times as we drove by on Highway 50 but had never actually visited.

It's a small town of about 40 people, and there are a lot of old buildings there. Some are well-maintained, and others have fallen into disrepair. Though we visited on March 10, there were still Christmas decorations up at a couple of houses and in a public space downtown. One yard still had Halloween decorations.

We saw a fascinating house on stilts, which we later learned was the Elmdale Treehouse Rental. We also saw a big yard with panel fences for keeping in livestock, and possibly also children, since the yard contained play equipment as well as hay bales.

The kids saw an old boxcar near the road and felt like they just had to cosplay Boxcar Children there.

We saw a minimum maintenance road and most emphatically did NOT take it, having learned our Bittersweet lesson on this matter.

Cottonwood Falls

Cottonwood Falls is just south of Strong City; you can walk over on a nice wide sidewalk that crosses the Cottonwood River. It has a cute brick-street downtown area with a magnificent old limestone courthouse. A park near the river affords a fine view of the falls the town is named for.

Strong City

Strong City is a small town that has been heavily shaped by the railroad. The park is railroad-themed, and city hall is housed in an old railroad depot, along with a museum.

The town features some older stone houses and many cottonwood trees. This is appropriate since it's a sister city to Cottonwood Falls, which is just a mile to the south.

Every June, the Flint Hills Rodeo takes place in Strong City, temporarily swelling the population of 485 by 20,000 people. 

Strong City is also located near the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, which is definitely worth a visit if you'd like to see how the land used to look before humans lived here.