The 8 Wonders of Kansas

When i visited St. Fidelis Catholic Church way back on Labor Day, i picked up a flier that i found interesting, stuffed it in my back pocket, and promptly forgot about it.

A few days ago i ran across the thing in between my haughty coffee table book about Wildlife Refuges of the US and the most recent issue of National Geographic. i took another look at it, and then did a web search, as i was curious to see what it was all about.

Apparently, the State developed a program to determine the '8 Wonders of Kansas.' Twenty four sites in all are nominated, a few of which i have seen, and many of which are on my mental 'to do' list. Voting will be allowed until the end of this calendar year, and then the winners will be announced by Governor Kathleen Sebelius* on Kansas Day (29 January).

i have only seen three of the 24 nominees, though i should have four. One, the Gypsum Hills Scenic Drive, was postponed from a few weeks ago. But i am determined to see them all. i will certainly not get to all 24 by the time voting is over, however, and so i will not participate. But i look forward to seeing what Kansans will consider their top 8 wonders. Certainly there are many more than that!


*It has been rumored that having gained the nomination at the DNC, Hillary Clinton will ask Kathleen Sebelius to serve as her running mate.

Ingalls and Yale, Oklahoma

This past weekend was not supposed to include any ghost towns. i was sick last week and didn't feel like doing much of anything. But as our wanderings were planning to take us to Stillwater, we decided to visit a ghost town about 10 miles east called Ingalls.

Ingalls, Oklahoma was the site of an important outlaw shootout in the 1870s. The Doolin-Dalton gang had been prowling around the area and set up a home base in Ingalls, where the outlaws would come to town to gamble, drink, and make merry. The town actually didn't mind, as the outlaws brought a lot of money into the growing 'metropolis.'

The US Marshals on the other hand... after sending in a couple of scouts from Stillwater who verified that the gang was, in fact, at the town, US Marshals from Guthrie came to Ingalls and ambushed the outlaws. A gunfight ensued, and three Marshals died. A stone monument was erected in their honor.

Since then, though, the town has declined markedly. When we arrived and drove down Ash Street, there was nothing, other than the monument, except trailers, rusted out 1950s pickup trucks, and old sheets hanging out to dry in the prairie wind -- your basic Oklahoma hick gathering. But on our way out on E 19th Street, Jeff spotted a group of old buildings that hint of the town's original liveliness.

The sign between the upper story windows of this building read "The Ingalls Hotel."


The rest of the complex included a livery stable and a saloon (visible in this photograph), and to the east of the hotel, an old general store. We peered in the windows and saw a mess of confusing artifacts. In the general store there was an old scale from the turn of the century, and cast iron cookware easily from the 19th century, but also an antique jar filled with individually wrapped peppermints. In the saloon, boots covered with a century's worth of dust in one corner and in the other a Styrofoam cooler from a local QuickTrip convenience store. Eh?

We were on our way back out to OK51 to turn left toward Stillwater when Jeff suggested we go right and see Yale, Oklahoma.

Yale was still populated, and had a library, police station, and modern high school building. But the downtown area, and much of the rest of the town, was more like a ghost town than any other site i've yet visited.


The central business district was deserted except for a group of feral cats living out of an old storefront. The businesses were filled with old junk from the first half of the 20th century, and the signs above the abandoned buildings were all squeaking along with the breeze. It was the only sound in town.

Wicked Kansas Storms

This past week i saw what is undoubtedly the worst thunderstorm i've ever seen.

One of the reasons why i love living on the Great Plains is the storms. i am so energized by their power. i have looked forward to seeing all the might of Kansas weather, but admit i have been ill prepared.

This past week saw the coming and going of a fantastic storm. The wind was going in all directions at once. Rain was pelting everything in sheets, soaking anything that ventured outside in four seconds, flat. Trees scores of meters high were bent, twisted, and battered so hard i thought i would surely see them start to snap.

It lasted no more than 20 minutes. And when it was over, i realized that i had not even seen the worst of the band. Not a single ball of hail had fallen across my roof. This was not even a taste of what i will see in the years i spend here.

my attempts to photograph it were useless, and i gave up after only a dozen shots or so. i did go out afterward to try to take some pictures of the flooding i had seen spreading across the lawns of my apartment complex. But once the rain stopped coming down, the fertile midwest soil soaked it up in a matter of minutes.

What i did get, was this:




And it made me laugh. Remember when we were young, and adults used to tell us that a rainbow was "God's promise to never send a rain like that again!"? Well, Kansans know better than that. We certainly will see it again, worse. Much worse. Come April, if not before.

Demonstration of Centripetal Force

Because i often go to the internet for cool things to show my students, i thought i would go ahead and add this one that i discovered on my own to the information jungle... (I will try to come back and post pictures once I can again.) Non-science teachers will get a real kick out of this too, if you have access to the materials necessary.

Get a bag of marbles and a 500 mL Erlenmeyer flask.
First put just one marble in the flask, and grip the neck with your hand upturned (thumb down).
Get the marble going around the base of the flask, then turn it over.
Discuss as you twirl the flask why the marble is not escaping due to gravity.
Then bring your other hand to the mouth of the flask and press it against your palm.
Allow the marble to slowly drain from the flask.
Now add another two or three marbles, and try the trick again.
I think even you will be shocked at the motion of the marbles, and your students will be delighted!

Ok, so it's been a while.

Well, i have moved to Wichita, Kansas, and have seen some incredible things.

'The Cathedral of the Plains' in Victoria, Kansas.

Here is my truck out on the prairie in Gove County.


Here is what i drove to Gove Co to see... the Chalk Pyramids.

i have also become a hunter of ghost towns, but in so doing have stumbled upon some of the most charming inhabited towns in the state, including Lindsborg (aka "Little Sweeden"). Jeff and i were on our way out to the western part of the state to see the Chalk Pyramids and to hunt a little ghost town called Coronado, a little east of the modern town of Leoti (pronounced LEE-oh-tah). We had put about an hour and half of I 135 under our belts and decided to stop for lunch in Lindsborg, thinking we might be able to get some Sweedish food and then get back on the road North and West. But we got much more than we bargained for, and ended up spending about five hours exploring this delightful town.


This past weekend i was on my way south to spend the weekend in Oklahoma, and took a little detour into the town of Hunnewell, Kansas. Now little more than a few gravel streets off the US highway 177, it sits just north of the state line and has a number of old, decaying homes mixed in with the trailers and pre-fab homes that house the current residents. Hunnewell is a victim of the boom and decline of the railroad industry in America. It was the site of a deadly gunfight during its heyday, and is now only a whisper of what was.

Jeff and i then spent Saturday morning at the Oktoberfest in Ponca City, Oklahoma. On our way there, we encountered a group of identical homes sitting on a rise in the prairie, with nothing else around. When i asked him was was up with this, he pointed out a small sign which read "Otoe Missouria Tribe," and explained that this was the last holdhout of this group of Native Americans. i was literally looking at the last of a people. It was disquieting, at least. As we left the small festival grounds then went for a drive through the Osage Nation. This is a federal Native Reservation which provides some of the only hills in northern Oklahoma. Just on the other side is a town of about 34,000 called Bartlesville, where Jeff used to work and live. He showed me around here and then we went back into the reservation and took a different route home.

Next weekend is Freeport, Kansas. Hopefully by then the picture upload will be fixed here.