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”.
We are out of Texas yet not out of the heat. The temperature is hovering around 100 degrees. We had our choice of two RV Parks. One park was a gravel lot in the middle of fields with NO trees. Nice new park just sweltering. The other park was old and needed some TLC yet it had trees and shade. We opted for the older park, Seven Winds RV Park, because of the heat. We later found out there was a public park, Arkalon Park, 10 miles out of town that sounded perfect for us: trees, hiking trails, water, nature abounding. We will tough it out at the older park. Anyone RVing to Liberal, Kansas check out Arkalon Park.
Liberal is also home to the Coronado Museum which houses artifacts relating to the history of Liberal. The museum is named in honor of Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. He and 36 soldiers entered what is now Southwest Kansas searching for the “Seven Cities of Gold”. The museum is a Liberal home built in 1918 and was moved to its present site. The exhibits ranges from Native American Indians, Victorian era, a Doctor’s office and a post office.
Liberal, Kansas was not a planned stop for us; we changed our route in mid-stream. We were pleasantly surprised at what the area offered us.
