Wednesday, September 26, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: Smoky Valley Scenic Byway

After my visit to the impressive Monument Rocks, my Kansas journey took me to a part of Kansas many non-Kansans know quite well: Interstate 70. It was there that I crossed over from west to east, that is across the 100th Meridian near the village of WaKeeney.

From there the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway commensed. It's named for the Smoky Hills, the "smoke," which I didn't see, is the haze that some people notice at sunrise and sunset.


As you've noticed in previous posts, Kansas isn't just windmills and cattle, although they're abundant on this byway. Of course, after my visits to the tree Beef Kingdoms of Kansas, I looked at these cows a little bit differently.

Just as businesses fail, sometimes towns don't make it. There's a natural yet macabre fascination with ghost towns, as we walk through them, we invariably ponder our own inevitible demise. On the southern end of the byway in Ness County is the town of Brownell, population 48. If you're looking for the opportunity to see a "living ghost town," then Brownell is where you need to go. On the left is the center of town. Below is Brownell's post office, which appears to have closed shop for good--a dead letter office.

Previous "My Kansas Kronikles" entries:

An overview
This has to stop
US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road
Little pueblo on the prairie
My return to western Kansas
Gray County Wind Farm
Wagon ruts
Chase County Courthouse
Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church
The Sunflower State
The Flint Hills
Alan Clark's filling station in Eskridge
A taste of home
Kingman
Western Holiday Motel in Wichita
The Prairie Chicken Capital of the World
The Texas panhandle
Oklahoma's strange panhandle
The Monument Rocks

Greensburg posts:

Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

The Beef Kingdoms:
Dodge City, Beef Kingdom
Liberal: Kansas' second Beef Kingdom
Garden City, Kansas' third Beef Kingdom

Next: Bob Dole's hometown of Russell

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