Eagle Springs

Our first attempt to find Eagle Springs, on 8 June 2019, was an utter failure. But at least it was a pleasant one.

First of all, why Eagle Springs? Well, I found it in the USGS list of populated places, and it killed me to think of leaving any county incomplete (Doniphan was one of the first counties we fully finished.)

We started out by driving on I-70 through the rolling hills of northeast Kansas. They were clad all in green, in honor of the rain-drenched early summer we've had. On the drive, we were struck by the abundance of trees on all sides and of water almost overflowing its riverbeds. (Kansas does have other features besides the vast western tracts of wheatfields and windfarms.)

My first inkling that we weren't on the right track was that Google Maps had us going somewhere between McLouth and Tonganoxie. This was a bit troubling, because I thought I remembered seeing this interesting page, which puts Eagle Springs about two miles north of Sparks. However, I couldn't access the internet on the backroads of Douglas County, so we continued on, having faith in the GPS coordinates we'd confirmed from this site and this one.

It turns out those coordinates (39.1311119, -95.1771923) were BOGUS! They led us far astray. But here's the good part: We had to drive along several miles of dirt roads, which meant we were going slow enough to roll down our windows. On the drive, we saw barbed wire / electric fences (yes! on the same fence!), blooming wildflowers, cattle, and several folks using the sunny Saturday morning to mow their lawns. We also saw and heard quite a choir of our state bird, the Western Meadowlark. So this red herring wasn't a total loss.

Eagle Springs is a ghost town, so we don't REALLY have to see it. There is some interesting stuff online about it, though. It's even featured in a Kansas Geological Survey report about Kansas's mineral springs. But what fascinates me the most is the man who tried to make it into a tourist resort, early settler named Pryor Plank. He first staked his claim in 1855 and blazed a warning to claim jumpers on one of his walnut trees: "If any man jump this place he will have bad luck. Pryor Plank." There's a fuller account of Plank and his resort at the beginning of this issue of the Northwest Missouri Genealogy Society Journal, and this site I mentioned earlier also has more details and a better map.

We definitely want to see the remains of the resort if we can make it up that way again. And if we do, we won't believe our fool GPS.

Doniphan

 Doniphan used to be an important town in the early days of Kansas, with a population of around 1,000 in 1857. This, incidentally, was the same year that the avid abolitionist James H. Lane was made the president of the town company. The town was so important, in fact, that Abraham Lincoln visited it in 1859. It had a long history even before that, however, with Europeans living in the area as early as 1724.

To get to Doniphan, we drove along some of the most treacherous dirt roads we've ever braved. At least once, we pondered turning back, faced by huge ruts and mud puddles. In the end, though, we persevered. After all, this was our final stop in Doniphan County!

These days, Doniphan is a sleepy little village. We were grateful for this nice marker, put up by a proud private citizen, which marked the spot. Otherwise, there would be no way to tell where the town site was. We did see a quaint old stone cabin, but other than that, there were no lasting marks of the days when this was one of the chief settlements in the state.

If you want to learn more about Doniphan, take a look at this research paper written about the community by a K-State student.

Palermo

Palermo was hard to find! We drove up and down dirt roads for half an hour trying to locate it. Finally, we settled on the intersection of Sheridan and Monument, near Wathena. The town used to be an important place in the days before the railroads, but there's not much there now except for some homes (including one that seems to be an old schoolhouse or town hall!) and bluffs with lovely views of the Missouri River.

Purcell

Purcell is a small neighborhood surrounding St. Mary's Catholic Church. The town was founded around 1886, and the church was erected around 1898. While there, we took a ride on this playground device, which we dubbed the St.-Mary's-Go-Round.

Leona

Leona is a small town with some friendly folks, an old co-op, a small park, and some defunct businesses. There's not much more to see these days.

The town was named after the first child born here: Leona Schock, daughter of the president of the town's organizing company. Somewhat amusingly (though it was probably not humorous at the time), the town's schoolhouse was stolen sometime between the spring rains and the beginning of the fall term in 1867.

Severance

Severance is a small town with a long and interesting history. The welcome sign says it was established in 1877, which was the year of its incorporation. However, the townsite was laid out in 1869, and settlers had been living in the area since at least 1854.

Severance was the site of several conflicts. For example, the railroad depot (built in 1874) was a violation of an agreement with Joel Ryan of Ryan's Station and resulted in a lawsuit. A more tragically violent example is that C. C. Clonch, the owner of the first cabin in the area, fatally shot two other settlers (Swintz and Waggoner) in 1855. He killed them with a single blast from his shotgun as they attacked him.

Other interesting events in the town's history include an 1896 baseball game between Civil War veterans and their young daughters. (The daughters won.)

These days, this is a little farm town where we saw lots of hills, as well as kids playing at the park. The houses and buildings seemed pretty old. Many were in good repair, and others were less so. The folks here are friendly, and one nice lady talked to us for quite a while. She said they used to have a couple of churches and a school, but they no longer do.

Denton

Denton is a small town with a post office, a co-op, and a variety of homes, ranging from trailers to neo-Victorian architecture. There wasn't a whole lot for visitors to see, though we did get a nice picture of our oldest son in front of the post office.

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.

Bendena

Bendena is a small town with an insurance agency, a propane provider, a feed store, a few houses, and a park with some really fun swings. We stopped on this windy morning to stretch our legs and try the park out. We approved!

One fun fact about Bendena: It was named after the sweetheart of a railroad telegraph operator. The town's original name was intended to be "Albers," but the U.S. Postal Service deemed this to be too similar to other town names.

Highland

After our wanders through rural Doniphan County, we reached Highland at last. It is a pretty town, though we were a bit disappointed by the notable lack of flea markets. (Just a little Doniphan County humor there.)

Highland Community College has a lovely campus. We were told that it also has the dubious distinction of being the only college in Kansas that refused to admit an aspiring student, George Washington Carver.

Our undertaker friend also told us that there is a cemetery called Highland in Iola, KS. This is funny, since there is also a cemetery called Iola just down the road from Highland, KS! I wonder how many times that has caused awkward misunderstandings.

Highland looks like a fun little town with a good future. I wish we hadn't been so rushed to get home; we will have to come back sometime and really look around.

We drove home through Hiawatha, then down Highway 75. It had been a long day, but we managed to see most of Doniphan County!

Lessons learned today:

• We need to start doing better research ahead of time. Several times now, we have missed a gem because we didn't know what to look for. 
• I need to chill out and not try to hit so many towns in a day. As Magen reminded me, this isn't a competition. We are trying to explore and experience Kansas, so we should take enough time to do it right. If we are too rushed, we lose. Period. 

Total distance for the day: 259 miles.

White Cloud

White Cloud was a little disappointing, perhaps because their much-vaunted flea market had shut down for the night by the time we rolled in. One thing that was a little bit funny: At the Info Kiosk on the way into town, it looked like someone had begun painting a freehand informational sign and then had run out of time, paint, or both. We are still wondering "Home of..." what?

There were a LOT of vendor stalls along both sides of the main street in downtown White Cloud, which made me wish we'd gotten an earlier start so we could have seen their wares.

We did take a gorgeous drive north on Highway 7 along the river to the Casino White Cloud. It turned out being farther than we wanted to go, but was lovely nonetheless.

One thing I really wish we would have done was to research the town before we left. We definitely would have hit the Four State Lookout and some of these historical sites around the town.

After coming back through White Cloud, we wanted to head toward Highland. By this time, we all pretty tired. It was probably not the best time for me to try my hand at navigating county roads with no GPS or detailed map, but I attempted anyway.

Needless to say, we got lost, but even that was charming, since it gave us a chance to see many pretty farmhouses and acres upon acres of carefully terraced farmland.

Mercifully, a friendly rancher set us on the right road (south, to Highland) after we had wandered around a while. He also suggested that we return in late October to see the pretty fall foliage on Highway 7 between Rulo, NE and Atchison, KS. We just might, at that.

Iowa Point

As we drove up Highway 7 from Sparks to White Cloud, we were not expecting another town for several miles. So imagine our surprise to see a sign for a town that wasn't on our map: Iowa Point!

Though it was not on the map, Iowa Point has a number of web links providing information about it. For instance, it is listed here as a ghost town. There is some fascinating historical information on it in William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, and you can also see historical documents regarding Iowa Point on the Territorial Kansas Online website.

There is not much to see in Iowa Point these days, though our undertaker friend later told us that, at the cemetery, we could have seen an ingenious device for inserting coffins into the side of the hill (rather than lowering them down from above). Maybe next time.

We did see a huge turtle crossing the road near this pretty barn (with an even prettier lady standing beside it).

We also saw a sign for -- brace yourself -- yet another flea market! Will wonders never cease?

Sparks

At Sparks, we hit the jackpot.

Enormous flea market? Check.

Kettle corn vendors? Check.

Plenty of room to walk and sights to see? Check.

Bathrooms? Check. (Well, port-a-potties, anyway.)

I had never seen such a large flea market. In fact, Sparks was one big flea market. We literally did not see any part of the town that wasn't covered in booths. At first I thought it was some kind of rodeo or festival, since I heard a PA booming somewhere in the distance.

While the 4-year-old braved the port-a-potty, I asked some kind-looking strangers about the event. "Excuse me," I said. "I've got a really ignorant question... but what exactly is going on here?"

"This is the flea market," they told me, clearly trying to restrain eyerolls.

Turns out the person on the loudspeaker was just a raffle announcer. (After all, what good is a flea market without a raffle?) Sparks apparently is a VERY small town, boasting about 9 people on a normal day. Twice a year, though, it turns into an antiquer's (and people-watcher's) paradise.

We left with lighter bowels, an enormous bag of kettle corn, and a bottle of Sioux City Sarsaparilla (the Grand-Daddy of All Root Beers). It was a great flea market and a very fine place to stop (though the port-a-potties were a tad fuller than I typically prefer).

Fanning

We took the Glacial Hills Scenic Byway toward Fanning. The drive was gorgeous; the blue sky contrasted perfectly with the budding greenery all around us.

As we traveled, we were intrigued by the number and vehemence of signs advertising flea markets. We began to suspect that Doniphan County was, in fact, one continuous flea market from one end to the other. We were still looking for a clean restroom. I asked Magen, "Flea markets have clean bathrooms, right?" She wasn't so sure.

We followed the signs to Fanning's Community Flea Market, which was in the church hall at the Community of Christ. As we pulled in, our 4-year-old asked, "Is this where you were married?" No, son, we weren't married at the Fanning Flea Market.

We had high hopes of finding a bathroom, snacks, and some fun, but it was not to be. The flea market was winding down, so the bathrooms were being cleaned.

However we did have a fun surprise: As we browsed the few remaining tables, a kind lady gave cowboy hats to the boys. "I remember one time up at White Cloud, a man gave my son a cowboy hat," she told us. "He remembered that all his life."

On our way out, several kind folks stopped us to visit and told us how sweet our boys were. Fanning probably stands out as the friendliest place we saw in the whole county.

As we left the church hall, our bladders were still full... but our hearts were also full from the kindness of strangers. And we certainly hoped that the heart-fullness would last much longer than the bladder-fullness.

Troy

So, if you are reading these posts in chronological order, you will know that we were pretty desperate for a reasonably clean bathroom by the time we rolled into Troy.

At John's Market, we hoped to find a bathroom, some snacks, and some maps of the garage sales that were going on in Troy. Alas, we found no bathroom and no maps, so we bought no snacks, and then we moved on to find a bathroom elsewhere.

As we headed out of town, I lamented that we had encountered a dead end. Our 4-year-old told us, "I think it's still alive." He's probably right, at that.

From the looks of the town website, we missed a lot when we failed to hit the downtown area. Next time we are in the region, we will definitely check it out.

Blair

Blair is a very small town. The only place we saw anything going on was an old roadside produce stand, where we encountered our first of MANY flea markets in Doniphan County. (Apparently, this was the weekend when most of northeast Kansas was holding garage sales and flea markets.) This same stand will double as a fireworks shop later in the summer.

Magen went in and looked around while I stayed in the car with the boys. Then, since there were no restrooms in sight, we headed off to our next stop.

Wathena

By the time we reached Wathena, we were ready to stretch our legs and have some lunch. We decided to eat at the Dairy Barn. The inside was cozy and comfortable, and the food was adequate, if not particularly memorable.

Magen went out to the van to give Baby Zed his own "Dairy Barn" while the older boys and I stayed inside and spilled not one, but two glasses of water all over the table and floor.




Here is a list of the food we tried:

Nacho Chili Bowl (chips from the store; canned chili and nacho cheese)

Bacon Cheeseburger (pretty good)

Pretzel (from Sam's Club, maybe?)

Chicken Tenders (acceptable)

Crinkle Fries (unremarkable, but great with ketchup)

In retrospect, we really should have tried the ice cream, but we were full and the boys were tired. All in all, it was a nice break and a charming little place. (Though, alas, still no restroom to be seen.)

Elwood

"Why are we going through Missouri to get to this town?" Magen asked me.

"Because the town is in that funny-shaped bump in the top right corner of the state," I replied. "The fastest way to get there is through St. Joe." (As an added bonus, the road through Missouri took us on a bridge over a moving train, which our boys will not soon forget.)

The funny-shaped bump is Doniphan County, home to a number of cattle, some gorgeous scenery, and LOTS of flea markets.

Our first stop was Elwood, where we saw an awesome fort / thrift shop / visitors' center. According to the county's website, "The name was given to the facility in appreciation of the relationship the City of Elwood enjoys with the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg."

Regrettably, we could not go into Fort Luxembourg because it was closed. We did, however, see a historical marker describing the founding of Elwood, as well as one detailing how the town was the home of the first Station on the Pony Express route.

We were eager to continue exploring (and to find a restroom), so we didn't stop for long in Elwood. If we return, we'd like to look around the downtown area, and maybe also hit Fort Luxembourg when it's open.