Across Kansas

I’ve driven across Kansas perhaps 15 times in my life, traveling from my childhood home in Louisville to visit my grandparents in Idaho, then later driving back-and-forth to college in Boulder, Colorado. I don’t think in all those trips I ever got more than a mile or two north or south of I-70 ,and I certainly don’t remember stopping for anything other than gas or perhaps to spend the night. Laura has never been in this part of the country. For the last 40 years all our trips west of the Mississippi have been by airplane. As a physician in private practice it was very expensive to close the office for vacation days; the overhead continued while the revenue dropped to zero. It was always cheaper to fly rather than spend the days required to drive.

So now, newly retired, it’s been wonderful to spend time in this fascinating state. We drove west and south from Independence, Missouri to a campground in the Flint Hills outside the small town of Allen, Kansas.  If I had been consulted regarding the name, I would have named them the Flint Minor Undulations, but I was not consulted, fortunately. With nightfall, the temperature  dropped quickly perhaps 20 or more  and a very hot day turned into a pleasant night. In the morning when it was still cool, we rode our bicycles west along the Flint Hills Nature Trail, through beautiful grasslands with views for miles on occasion.  Later in the day in hundred degree heat we visited the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve. This is a National Park Service unit that preserves the largest expanse of still remaining tall grass prairie, an ecosystem that once covered a good part of the middle United States.   Even on the Preserve the prairie is much changed from its appearance prior to the arrival of white settlers as there are trees scattered about and trees lining the bottoms along the water courses. Apparently there were not any trees at all previously as the frequently occurring prairie wild fires prevented their growth, and it was not until the wildfires were suppressed to allow for cattle grazing that trees have been able to grow in this ecosystem. In many cases cottonwoods have been planted for shade and wind breaks. 

As there was simply no wood for building, the locally abundant limestone and sandstone was utilized and there remain many beautiful stone buildings  of varying tan and orange hues. Certain limestones were found to make good fenceposts for stringing barb wire and many of these are still in use. Sadly, most of the small towns that we drove or bicycled through are in bad shape, some essentially ghost towns. Many of the old stone buildings  are dilapidated or abandoned. 

In the northeast corner of Kansas we visited the Nicodemus National Historic Site. This is the site of a town founded in the 1877 by about three hundred Black settlers seeking to escape their bleak prospects in post-Reconstruction Kentucky.  Conditions were difficult and primitive and not all the settlers stayed, but by the mid-1880s Nicodemus was a prosperous town. As with other small Great Plains towns it did not survive  being bypassed by the railroad, proximity to which was required to remain economically viable as a farming hub. By the time the Great Depression was over, few families remained. Apparently there were several of these Black post-Reconstruction towns;  the visitor center ranger claimed that Nicodemus is the only one that has been preserved.  While not questioning the town’s historical and cultural importance, I fear that the term “preserved” is a stretch.  There is very little left of Nicodemus: a Works Project Administration constructed community center that now serves as the visitor center, one restored church, and three dilapidated other buildings. At least the National Park Service is preserving what is left.

How was the weather?   It was 105° at 5 PM in Nicodemus. We’ve had the camper van for a year now and are still learning about it. In Kansas we learned that it can be comfortable in the heat as long as it can be kept in the shade. Without shade there’s really no hope; the fans and air conditioner can do little for a metal can in direct sunlight. We opted for a hotel that night. It was great! Space, plenty of water, a laundromat, multiple outlets and real Wi-Fi. We stayed until the maid started to frown.