My Kansas Kronikles: US Route 83, America's Loneliest Road

The stretch of US Route 50 that runs through Nevada is touted as "America's Loneliest Road." I've never been anywhere near that part of Nevada, but looking at a map, it does look pretty desolate.

However, US Route 83 runs from the Canadian border in North Dakota down to Brownsville, Texas, is more deserving of the title, "America's Loneliest Road."

After spending the night in the mightiest of Kansas' Beef Kingdoms, Garden City, I headed north on Route 83. And it is lonely, but worth driving on.

Tryon, Nebraska rancher Ron Sowders and his wife Maudene publish two free publications, "Voices of The Sandhills" and "Canada to Mexico...via Highway 83." The couple also operate a mail order business specializing in western-themed books, music, and curiosities.

Here's what Ron wrote about US Route 83 in the Fall/Winter 2006 edition of "Canada via Mexico":

Yes, it is a very long, straight highway running from Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, following along the Rio Grande River and turning north at Laredo, Texas, where it becomes a very straight, north-south highway. It spans the state of Texas, a narrow strip of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. where it arrives at the border of Canada. Highway 83 is not only one of the longest, but it is a very good highway.

Once the US Route 83 leaves the Texas Hill Country, it's a Great Plains post, and as I explained in my Garden City post, for the most part, the Plains are depopulating. Which is why I'm nominating Highway 83 as "America's Loneliest Road."

Of course, I'm not on expert on the road, my only other driving I've done on it is in Nebraska in the state's beautiful but sparsely populated Sandhills, not too far from Sowders' Tryon ranch in McPherson County.

Astute readers of this blog will recognize that county, and there's a Kansas tie-in:

Marathon Pundit Exclusive: "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Debunked on Page One: UPDATED AGAIN

I couldn't find the Sowders' web site--where I hoped to find an e-mail address for them, but I'm going to write Ron and Maudene a letter about the claim author Thomas Frank made in his best selling book.

The poorest county in America isn't in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns, and in the election of 2000 the Republican candidate for president, George W. Bush, carried it by a majority of greater than 80 percent.

Go to the footnotes, and you'll learn that county is McPherson in Nebraska.

There was a vibrant comment thread following that post, which has temporarily vanished--Haloscan is buggy at times, but simply put, I believe Frank cherry-picked a study and to prove his "point" that the "destitute" people of the Plains are zombiefied supporters of the Republican Party.

But because I'm calling Highway 83 "America's Loneliest Road" doesn't mean you should avoid it. Unless you like traffic jams. And as I've stated before, Nebraska's Sandhills are the nation's best kept secret.

Related posts:

My fall road trip, driving south in Nebraska

My fall road trip: Nebraska National Forest

My favorite 2005 photo

More on "What's the Matter With Kansas"

Next: Lake Scott State Park and pueblo ruins

Technorati tags: republican politics Nebraska Thomas Frank Kansas poverty books Nebraska Sandhills travel byways Great Plains Garden City