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My site has been up for awhile, and I have received a lot of emails and letters. Here are a few to share.
Volland, Wabaunsee County
One of my constant writers is Cheryl Unruh. She is a fantastic newspaper columnist for the Emporia Gazette and author of the wonderful website, www.flyoverpeople.net. Check this website out. On March 11, 2008, she added a column on Volland, Wabaunsee County.
Check out this link: http://www.flyoverpeople.net/news/index.php/archive/volland/
Old Clearwater and Environs
A new ghost towns fan, Heather Gourley, wrote:
Thank you again for writing me back. My family has already found Vol. 1, 2, and 3 all in a set. we received it in the mail last Thursday. I have only had a chance to skim threw them though. I have 3 children under the age of 7, so it makes it hard to read at times. My oldest is really taking an interest in your books and in the history and old buildings. I was wondering if you know about a couple of old townships that used to be around here back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. There is a Millerton (they just burned down the old school house about 2 yrs ago though.), and there is Anson, and a Richmond. I know a ton more around here and some of the history of them. My fiance's family actually helped to make Clearwater a town. They are the Tjaden's. We have an exlusive book about Clearwater from 1884-1984. It is a great book and I would be willing to share any information with if by chance you happen to need it. And if you are ever in Kansas again please let me know. My family would like to have our books signed and we would like to meet you. We love your work. Please keep it up. p.s. Went to Elmdale this weeked and that was amazing. We took alot of back roads and found so many abandoned buildings and houses. Thank You again.
Atchison River Road
A Kansas City ghost towns fan read the story on Top 10 Kansas locations. He is ready to hit the road with this question:
Hello Dan, Just saw you're site for the first time and found it quite informative. I live in johnson county and am interested in one of your recommended drives. On your top ten you list the Troy to Kansas/Nebraska line drive on highway 7 as an alternate to the more difficult road out of Atchison to highway 36(along the river). I would like to do this latter route and wonder if you have any more specifics. I looked up the possibilities on mapquest and it looks like just various roads that appear adjacent or near the river. Does one just take the roads as close to the river as you can or do you have a specific route to recommend? Thanks for your help and also for the great web site.
I responded: Mr. Strauss: Thanks for the nice comments about the website. Your trip should be fine. If you pick up the "river road" down by Independence Park in Atchison, and head north, you will cross a bridge heading east after about three miles. Still on this gravel road. It will take you past the ghost town of Doniphan, which is pretty impressive, and then you will be on the road for several miles before reaching civilization. There are two more ghost towns on this road--- Geary City and Palermo. The location of Geary City is hard to describe-- it will be where the road splits--one way goes towards the west and the other still goes north. There are some ruins, I think an old school, and that is all that is left. Palermo is marked by a cemetery and is only three miles or so from where this road reaches Highway 36. I love this road, especially in the fall, but in late summer it should be good also. The route on State 7 through Sparks, Iowa Point, and White Cloud is incredible. It is a blacktop highway, easy to follow. Take it on up to Rulo, Nebraska, before turning around. There is another ghost town called Eagle Springs which is a real challenge to find. North of Sparks, Highway 7 takes a split and a road crosses a bridge and continues. If you take this, you will get close to Eagle Springs and traverse the "grand canyon" of Kansas. If you have time, mapquest that and give it a try. Good luck! If you take some digital pictures, I would love to see what you found.
Canada, Kansas
Barb has been a great ghost towner over the years. She helped me with Canada, which will be in the new book. Here are her observations on Canada.
Hi!
Wow! We had GREAT weather today! Great day for an outing! I found that Canada was more than an empty field - it's very small, but it's there! I got you pictures of the two business I saw (Canada Bait and Tackle and the CO-OP). The town is kind of "L" shaped, so I went to the corner and got you pictures looking west and south. There's probably a dozen houses (maybe less), but I saw several people out and about, and the houses seem to be well tended!
The cemetery doesn't have a name on it, but it's their cemetery -- it's just across the highway and it's on the local area map. We walked through the cemetery and got you pictures of the oldest gravestone in it--1874(since there was no cornerstone or entryway, I figured it would tell you how long the cemetery had been there); the family "plot" which has the second oldest as well; a clear picture of the family name--it's not the oldest one, just the clearest one; and then just some pictures from different angles of the cemetery. There's an old church next to the cemetery to the west. It is separated from the cemetery by a row of trees. It is surrounded by trees, actually, so the picture I got is kind of hard to see, but it is still standing, and if you look through the trees (which are about 8-10 feet from the building) you can see the front door. If I can do anything else for you, just let me know! I'm on the historical society here in Burns, and used to write a column for our monthly newspaper (until it stopped publishing) about what used to go on in this area in the old days, so I know a bit about this area from about 1865 on. If you run across any other areas around here that interest you, I'll be glad to share what I know. Canada is a bit north for my research, sorry! But it is about 5 miles west of Marion, which is the Marion County seat, and then about five miles farther west you hit Hillsboro. So, it's pretty close to amenities! I notice that you used to work at the Kansas State Historical Museum? I grew up in Topeka and spent a LOT of time at the old museum and the new one (guess it's really not that new anymore...). That would have been a great job! Hope this is what you need! Good luck on the new book! If you get the ghost hunters out here and they do an investigation on something in Kansas, let me know if you get a chance so I can watch it! (Or put it on your website and I'll check there!)
Uniontown, Kansas (the Shawnee County example)
I received an email from Louann Ackors, one of the founders of the Kansas Paranormal Research and Investigation Society. It appears that Uniontown is on their "agenda." Good luck to them! Hi My name is Louann Ackors and my husband and myself are the founders of Kansas Paranormal Research and Investigation Society. After reading about Union Town on your site we just had to check it out. What a place!! The cemetery is absolutely amazing. We weren't able to find much of the ruins because of heavy over growth but still, it's a very interesting place. We didn't get any evidence but there were a couple of person experiences. In the cemetery there were cold spots and as we were walking near the old walls on the Oregon Trail part of the hiking trail we heard footsteps matching ours to the east of us. We were completely alone there. We are seriously considering doing an investigation there. Is there any information you can give us that would help? I would certainly appreciate it. Thank you for the website, it's great. BTW, I'm from Topeka, have lived here most of my life. Louann Ackors
Wakulla Township, Sedgwick County, Kansas
Jim and Brenda have been writing me for several months. Does anyone out there have some information on Wakulla Township?
Dan, Here is a short answer I received about Waculla Twp.. Do you concur or can you think something more definitive.
Dear Jim, I hope the following information from Bill Pennington, another MHGS volunteer, is of help to you... please let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks! Ann Boll MHGS Volunteer I didn’t find anything written about the location of Waucula Township. The people that I found in both the 1870 and 1875 census records leads me to believe that Waucula was the northern township. I found families in both Park and Grant townships that had been in Waucula. So my guess is that Rockford was the southern township, Wichita the central and Waucula the northern one. On that basis, Waucula would have possibly included the southern 2/3 of what is now Harvey County and a portion of Reno County.
Zyba, Kansas and the Tornado
Interesting story about the ghost town of Zyba, Kansas, and the tornado that made it that way:
Sir: THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY !!! My memory is from 50 years ago so it may be "cloudy". The "Zyba" oil field was just west of Riverdale ( or Peck) . To the best of my memory the oilfield was south of Zyba but named for the town ( this may not be correct, just as a 4 year old remembers it). At that time I heard my mother and dad speaking of our neighbors : names: Woody Barnett, Paul and Marie Hoarch( spelling is in question). There is nothing of great importance of me finding my original home, but if possible I would like to see this area one last time. A question I have not asked but wonder if you might know. When I started First grade I lived at 819 East Harvey, and attended Madison ( I think) Elementary School. Is this area still there ??? To the east of our home at that time I remember my older brother refering to a "recreation center" which teenagers used. It seems an old Train Locomotive may have been near or at this sight. From birth I have been teased with the Nickname " Jayhawk". I do not now consider this a detrimental term, but I do want to know more about my heritage. Again-- Thank You P.S.--- At approximately age 3 (1955) I think I remember my parents speaking of a tornado at Udah (Utah-- spelling not known) which was very bad, even for Kansas-- Any info on this
Mr. Warren: > > Sorry for the delay. I found quite a bit on Zyba, although the place existed and was destroyed 30 years prior to the time period you were looking for. Here is an excerpt on Zyba from my forthcoming book on tornadoes of Kansas: > > TORNADO OUTBREAK, NOVEMBER 10, 1915 > > Late in 1915 south central Kansas was the recipient of a nasty storm, dispelling the theory that tornadoes only occur during the spring and summer months. > A large tornado roared through northern Sumner county and destroyed the small town of Zyba, and then continuing on north, it cut a path of destruction through southern Sedgwick county. The Wichita Eagleâs headline read, âZyba Wiped Off the Map.â Outside of town, the tornado destroyed some farmsteads and killed four people. Mrs. Dave Gordon was one of the witnesses, and in 1979 she had this to say: > > Zyba was on the old Meridian Road just south of the Ninnescah (River) > where the Rock Island Railroad crossed the river. There wasnât much thereâa country store, depot, stockyards, and a few houses. My dad Henry Hartle bought a store and we moved from Oklahoma in 1911. We had a two story house. I slept upstairs. > > My dad, mother, little sister, and one hired girl slept downstairs. > About 10:30 that night I heard a train coming but smething told me it > wasnât and I got up to go downstairs. When I came to I was standing on the edge of the Ninnescah in a cold and pouring rain wearing only a nightgown. I didnât know what happened or how I got there. I made my way back to the house about two long blocks but it was gone. I remember a nail went clear through my foot. > > I found my mother but she wouldnât talk to me. Then I found my dad. > He was groaning and badly hurt so I helped him get over some stairs. I found > my little sister and couldnât do anything for her. Then I heard some neighbors calling us. They had me carrying a lantern while they got everybody into a big cave we used for storage. They flagged down the next train and put us in the baggage car and brought us to Wichita to the hospital. > > My mother had a crushed chest and a punctured lung and died very shortly. My Dad had a broken shoulder and internal injuries but he lived. My sister had a fractured skull but came out of that. The hired girl and > > Mrs. LeForce, a neighbor, were killed outright. > > Neighbors found the bodies of the two women several hundred feet from their home. The tornado caused extensive damage at Derby where it killed a section hand and injured more than twenty others. > > Mrs. Gordon noted that, âZyba was never built up againânobody ever went back.â > > In Great Bend a tornado killed eleven people and did a million dollars in damages. The storm first appeared sixteen miles southwest of town, moving northeast. It struck the Moses and Clayton ranch south of town, where it killed a thousand sheep. > > When the tornado reached Great Bend it was three city blocks wide. Residents said the roar sounded like a hundred locomotives. The twister destroyed the electric power and water plants, several flour mills and grain elevators, the Santa Fe Railroad passenger and freight depots, and 125 homes. > > The winds strew debris from the storm for a distance of sixty miles! Someone found a personal letter and a check from Great Bend near Glasco, 85 miles to the northeast. Another > > person found a canceled check from a Great Bend bank in Nebraska, where it had been dropped by the tornado. The storm also damaged buildings in Ellinwood and Hoisington. > > The area was in the middle of an oil boom from the 1930s through the 1960s. There was never a town there any more, just a flag station and the area retained the local place name, even if nothing was ever there anymore. > > Hope this helps a bit. Once again, sorry for the delay. > > Dan > > >
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