Tag Archives: bridges

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!!!!!

 

Riley, County KS

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It was a beautiful day for an adventure on the backroads.  With no real destination in mind we headed north-east.  I opened up my topo map and saw that I had a little sticky note that pointed to an area that said, abandoned railroad bridge.  Arriving at the sticky note, was the ghost town of Lasita.

Lasita

Settled in 1880 Lasita once was a small town of 35.  The farming community that surrounded the town supported the businesses and school.  The elevator, cemetery and one home is all that is left of the town that once had a 2 story school, general store, blacksmith, and stockyards.  There was an abandoned railroad, but the terrain didn’t support the type of railroad bridge that I was looking for.  Load up Wylie, let’s head south, I see a little town and creek on the map.

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South of Lasita a few miles is

Bala, KS

Settled in 1870 on its original site, it was moved 1 1/2 south when the railroad come in 1887.  In the 1960’s Fort Riley expanded to the edge of town and the village died out.  Only the Presbyterian Church and a few houses are left.

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Found the abandoned railroad

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Turn around!!

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One of the largest stone arch railroad bridge in Kansas

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What a treasure to have found!!  Such a beautiful warm (80) autumn day.

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Smaller stone arched railroad bridge about 2 miles west.

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Whitewater Falls Stock Farm

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Traveling the backroads to find an old barn, my adventure took me across this old steel truss bridge.  It’s one of my favorite design of bridges along with the stone arch bridges.  This bridge is across the Whitewater River in Butler County, KS.

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Tree lined backroad on the way to Whitewater Falls Stock Farm

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In 1879 James Robinson, came to Kansas from Illinois where he was known as “Apple” Robinson because of his success with fruit orchards, he purchased 3,840 acres of land along the Whitewater River near Towanda, KS.  Locals called him  “Wheat” Robinson, as he farmed large amounts of wheat and was the first to grow alfalfa in Kansas.  With his sons he purchased an additional 13,000 acres and in 1884 he began to breed Percheron horses.  By 1911 Whitewater Falls Stock Farm was the largest Percheron farm in the nation.

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The young family that lives on the Farm is in the process of restoring this amazing beautiful barn.  Here is the link to their Facebook page.  Whitewater Falls Stock Farm

Donate Here to help restore Whitewater Falls Stock Farm Barn

Bridges of Butler County, KS

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Butler County, KS is the largest county in the State.  It sits on the western edge of the Flint Hills.  Here is a link to different tours for the area.  Please call ahead, as some of the restaurants have closed.

Butler County, KS Tours

These bridges are best photographed from down below.  I always have jeans and boots on, but there were a few places I didn’t want to go thru as there was a lot of poison ivy!  Thankfully I didn’t see any snakes!  Wylie was in his “pouch” for most of these photos!

Bridge #1

Double Arch   Built in 1912  Arches 20′ and 30′

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Bridge #2

Built 1897  25′ Arch

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This one is my favorite!  I could have stayed here all day, beautiful rock ledge.

Bridge #3

Built in 1900   37′ Arch

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Nice reflection of clouds in the water

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Bridge #4

Built in 1899  36′ Arch

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Bridge #5

Built 1899  36′ Arch  (I don’t think this one is going to last much longer)

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Just down the road from Bridge #5 was this old school.

Lily Lake School  1885-1966  (strange place for a cow!)

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Looking forward to continuing this tour of Bridges of Butler County!

Bodarc, KS

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Named after the Osage Orange Tree which is common on the Plains, Bodarc or Bois d’ Arc, KS was an unofficial community founded in 1875.  The community had a mill, general store, school house, church and cemetery.

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General Store

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Rock Fence

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Weekend in the Flint Hills

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We spent a couple of days in the Flint Hills around Cottonwood Falls, one of my favorite places to be.  It was a very cool rainy weekend.

Most of the pastures have been burnt,  the grass is so beautiful and green.  The tallgrass prairies of the Flint Hills are so beautiful any season.

Cattle of the Flint Hills

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Mr. Farmer, we should get some Longhorns!

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Clements, KS

In 1862 a post office was established at Silver Creek (not a ghost town, it’s considered an extinct town).  The rail road came thru the area in 1871 and in 1881 the post office was moved to Crawfordsville, which was renamed to Clements in 1884.

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Double Arch Stone Bridge built in 1887

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Abandoned beautiful majestic home.  South of Cottonwood Falls

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Bushong, Lyon County,  KS.  In 1880 the railroad constructed a depot in a pasture, a town developed beside the track.  Originally called Weeks – it was changed by the railroad crew to Bushong, in honor of a baseball payer, Al “Doc” Bushong.  They also named another town in Lyon County after a baseball player, Comiskey.  At one time there was over 150 residents calling Bushong home, now there are less than 40.  A fire in the 1920’s destroyed a large portion of the town, buildings were never rebuilt.  The railroad has abandoned the track and the railbed is now a nature trail.

This building served as a gas station and tavern.

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This guy calls Bushong home.  He was so beautiful, but noisy!!  He didn’t want me getting too close!

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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!!!

 

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

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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

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Yard art? or just poor parking?

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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.

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

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

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

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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.   DSC03268

I always loved hanging clothes on the clothesline.

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Limestone Double Arch Bridge, no longer used but they preserved it when they re-routed Highway 18.

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Back Roads to Maxwell

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I had my day all planned out, and none of what I had planned worked out.  It is a cool, breezy overcast day and the place I was wanting to go in the Flint Hills would be better photographed on a clear day.  Wylie and I loaded up and took the back roads over to Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Canton, Kansas.  Here’s what we saw today.

 

Abandoned bridge outside of Assaria, KSDSC02853

I didn’t find any information on Hallville, KS.  There is one home currently occupied, I could find no other remains of any buildings.  It was along an abandoned train track.

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Olive Springs School was built in 1885 and was used as a school until 1947.  It is now an art gallery displaying the painting and prints of a local artist, Maleta Forsberg.

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Bridge near the entrance to Maxwell Wildlife Refuge

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Maxwell Wildlife Refuge is home to 200 head of bison and 50 elk.  They roam free on the 2800 acre natural prairie.

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Just west of the Refuge is McPherson State fishing lake, where we saw this lone eagle.

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Elk Falls, KS

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Elk Falls, is located in Elk County, KS.  It is named after the falls that are located near the town on the Elk River.  Elk Falls claims to be the World’s Largest Living Ghost Town with a population of approximately 100,  and also the Outhouse Capital of the World.

I love this sign that directs you to the falls.

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There is a well travel path that takes you from the bridge down to the river.

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This outhouse says it all!  Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving they give outhouse tours.

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Fall in the Ozarks

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I spent a wonderful week in Missouri with the grandkids while their parents were on vacation.  NO adult supervision!!  They kept poor ole granny busy,  getting them to school, cheer, riding lessons, church activities, dentist.  Thankfully everything was written out for me and I didn’t miss anything or forget a child anywhere!

Fall in the Ozarks (actually anytime of the year) is beautiful.

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This is a bridge on Historic Route 66 just outside of Spencer MO

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