Monthly Archives: August 2011

Lake Scott State Park Kansas

Lake Scott State Park was an oasis for us – it was our first cool weather and the lake was full of water. The park is not only a recreational haven it is also full of history. The park is a nature lover’s paradise with hiking, horseback and biking trails, swimming, and boating, along with just plain relaxing.

 

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First National Natural Landmark in Kansas

Kansas and prairies are almost synonymous.  You ride and ride and every once in a while you see a farmhouse, a barn, a small community but the landscape barely changes in the South West part of the state – prairies and rolling hills.  But then, there’s Monument Rocks.  Also known as the Kansas Pyramids
or Chalk Pyramids, they were the first natural wonder to be inducted as a National Natural Landmark in Kansas by the Department of Interior on October 31, 1968.  These outcroppings are on private land and the owner generously shares these wonders with the public.  The rocks are limestone formations formed 80 million years ago when the area was an inland sea and reach a height of 70 feet.

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Women, Sea Creatures and the Last Battle

Before there was “Women’s Lib”, back when the West was wild and a couple decades after Kansas became a state, Maria De Greer and her daughter, Ida Eastman, founded what is today Scott City, KS.  De Greer, a widow from Chicago, was a writer, a feminist, a newspaper woman, and the first woman admitted to the Kansas Bar Association. Being a strong advocate of the Temperance Movement, she came to Kansas to build a “model” community with no taverns and no brothels. Continue reading

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Turns Out Dorothy, We Were in Kansas Afterall

We found the Yellow Brick Road and it is in Liberal, Kansas.  Liberal is recognized as the official home of Dorothy Gale and the Land of Oz.  Dorothy’s house is a 1907 farmhouse donated to the Seward County Historical Society.  It was carefully restored and furnished to resemble the house in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.

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Liberation

Goodbye Texas – what a relief, and now we are in Liberal, Kansas.  Don’t worry we have not changed our political afflication and we wondered whether the name was a political statement but found out it came about through hospitality and generosity.  In the 1880s water was scarce in Southwest Kansas and what was available was often expensive.  S. S. Rogers dug a well for his own use yet always allowed travelers access to his water.  The travelers offered to pay, yet Rogers said “Water is always free here”.  The story goes that most travelers replied “that’s mighty liberal of you” and the area become known as “the liberal well”.

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Local Towning

Knowing we were going to hitch up and leave Hord’s Creek Lake in Coleman, TX today, we decided to have our morning coffee outside during the coolest part of the day.  Realizing it seemed dark for 6:30 in the morning, I opened the door to a dark sky and realized rain must be in the area.  This part of Texas, as most of Texas, has not seen rain in a very long time and we were happy for them.  For us it meant either packing up and leaving
in the rain or staying an extra day.  We opted for the extra day.

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Water Water Where are You?

In May we were running from the high water in Louisiana and now in Texas they are praying for any amount of water.

We have all heard about the drought in Texas.  Laurie’s sister lives outside of Austin and whenever we talk with her, the drought is a prime topic.  So yes, we knew about the drought, yet to see it first hand is totally different.  Today we passed fields of crops that were totally brown and others that were struggling to survive.  Crossing bridges we saw little to no water where rivers and lakes should be.  We don’t know how much water Texas needs to get back to normal levels yet it has to be a large amount.

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The Baron and Stephen F. Austin

Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, a prominent Dutch nobleman, was one of Stephen F. Austin’s primary negotiators with the government of Mexico for the original Angelo American colony.  Because of this Mina was renamed Bastrop in the Baron’s honor.  The only problem was the Baron was a fraud.  He was born in Dutch Guiana to ordinary Dutch parents.  None the less, the name remained and Bastrop is a thriving community with
more than 130 historic structures listed on the National register of Historic Places.  Bastrop is also home to The Bastrop Advertiser, the oldest weekly newspaper in Texas which has been in operation since 1853. Continue reading

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Another Town, Another Engine

Another town, another engine.

Like many areas we have visited, Livingston, TX’s economy was largely influenced by timber.  The W. T. Carter & Bro. Engine #5 is a coal burning steam engine which signifies the importance of the timber industry established in Polk County over 150 years ago and continues to be of importance today.  The engine was built in 1911 by Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works and was in operation until 1952.

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