Tag Archives: abandoned Farms

Hoglund Dugout

Located west of Lindsborg, KS is the Hoglund Dugout.

Gustaf Hoglund and Maria Olsen were married in 1871. Living in the dugout they homesteaded 80 acres. They built a small shanty around the dugout, where they lived until 1880. At that time they built a large 2 story 5 bedroom, as their family had grown to 8 children. The home was built to the east of the dugout, which then served as a root cellar. The children never married or moved from the farm. The youngest child, Alma died in 1975.

The dugout was filled with water due to the all the rains and flooding. I’ll return to the dugout when it dries out as I’d like to see all the rock work and how deep it is. The dugout is only a couple miles from Coronado Heights, which is closed due to erosion and the only road being washed out. Miss going there as it’s so beautiful this time of year with all the yucca, spiderwort and butterfly milkweed.

It’s Been A While

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but it’s like a friend you haven’t seen in a long time and you just pick up right where you left off. Today our adventure was one of my favorite places, Lincoln County, KS. I love the landscape and especially the limestone, be it fence post, homes or bridges. ❤ Limestone

Lincoln County has a program that recognizes all the old schools. Here’s a couple we saw today.

Liberty School 1893-1947

Spring Valley School 1893-1953

I love goats

What a beautiful home and barn. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to fix this up?

Stone Arched Bridge

Huge old oak tree. That’s Wylie sitting at the base of the tree.

Unique silo

Something I have NEVER seen……..A plane at the gas station!!

It’s good to be back with a post. Hopefully I can get use to using a laptop instead of a desktop (as I no longer have a desktop because it quit!). It’s been quite a learning experience for me. I can get into all sorts of trouble on a laptop. Touch the little touchpad the wrong way and things disappear!! Touch the screen and it either grows big or small or disappears. What do you use when you post? And please don’t tell me you post on your phone!!!!!

October 31

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Dr. Jones Homestead

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Located in the Flint Hills, just to the southeast of Florence, KS is the home of Dr. W.B. Jones

Built in 1878

Beautiful stone work

Dr. Jones and his wife Sara had 7 sons. They only lived in this beautiful home for a few years.

The moon keeps watch over the majestic homestead.

Exploring Barton County, KS

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This week in Kansas has been so hot! The 100 degree temperatures are great for the wheat harvest. I had a decision to make, stay home and enjoy the climate controlled comfort of home thinking of places to go OR load up and enjoy a day exploring. Load up Wylie!!

We headed west to Barton County, an area known as Post Rock County. This area is approximately 200 miles from the Nebraska border to Dodge City.

Boyd, KS was a station and shipping point for the railroad. All that is left is a grain elevator, a farm and this abandoned station. Was so surprised to see the two gas pumps!

Scales at Boyd Station

On our way to Olmitz we saw this jackrabbit. Our rabbit population is mostly cottontail, but the jack is making a comeback.

Olmitz was established in 1885 mainly by Austrians. It is quiet little town, population 114, the catholic school has closed, kids are bused to Otis, about 6 miles away. This little bar The New Place, was a great stop on a hot day. I will post photos of the beautiful catholic church in the series of Churches of the Prairie, I can’t wait for you to see it, it was SO beautiful!

From Olmitz, we traveled north on the backroad to find ruins of Barton County. The temperature was 103 and we had a few people stop to see if we were okay. Thank you Barton County for checking on “an old grandma and her pup”.

I see so many of these abandoned places and there are some that I would love to refurbish.

Someday I would love to go into one of the cellars! There is a group in the Flint Hills that gives tour of the Kansas stone cellars. Sign me up!

What a beautiful home.

The entrance at one time was quite impressive

This homestead out grew its original stone home and later built on the wood frame addition

This was where the Lutheran church held their Sunday school classes.

Just up the road is this homestead

A little farther north driving along the river bottom and I was thinking “what a great place for a home”, someone else thought that too! The stories these homes could tell.

Cellar at the river bottom home

Lincoln County Again

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Lincoln County is one of my FAVORITE places. It was such a beautiful day, calm day after all the wind we’ve had. I wished you were with us.

Since the grasses haven’t started growing I saw numerous root cellars/storm caves. NO, I didn’t crawl into any of them!!!

All that is left of this home, is a window in the milo stubble.

Ash Grove, KS at one time had a grocery store, lumber yard, blacksmith, hardware store, hotel, church and school.

Limestone arch bridge at Ash Grove

Yard art? or just poor parking?

The wooden frame building was the Pottersburg Church. It was moved to Ash Grove in 1925.

The church bell is still in the bell tower.

Ash Grove school closed in 1966. Can you hear the school bell ringing?

To the south of Ash Grove was the site of Pottersburg.

A woman died near Spillman Creek and was buried in the cemetery. A local man later bought this stone for her.

Continuing south is a place that I came across years ago while exploring with my Mom and Aunt. It is the only place that I have seen that has limestone clothesline post still standing, I was so happy when I came across it again. It is absolutely in the middle of no where. Can’t imagine how awesome it would be living there.