Ghost Towns of Kansas Vol. 2 (1979)

Ghost Towns of Kansas Volume Two was published in April of
1979.  Most of the site research was done between June of 1976
and August of 1978.  This book took the shortest actual time
to write.  At the time, I was a sophomore at the University of
Kansas in Lawrence.  I was taking 15 hours a semester and
working 30 hours a week.  The only break I had to write the
book was during the summer of 1978.  The writing was
begun and finished during summer break between classes.
Writing began in late May of 1978 and was completed in
August.  Three months to write 300 pages. 

The focus of Volume One was on Eastern Kansas.  The focus
of Volume Two was Southeast and Western Kansas ghost
towns.  The hundred ghost town histories covered in Volume
Two were as strong a set as appeared in Volume One.  Volume
One was still selling briskly three years later.  Borrowing on
the continued success of Volume One, Volume Two also sold
well, although with an emphasis on less populated parts of
Kansas, the challenge was on for the second volume to sur-
pass the sales of the first one. 

This volume contained a history of what became the most
famous Kansas ghost town-- Neosho Falls.  Neosho Falls later
caught the attention of the rock band Kansas, when they wrote
an entire concept album around the town, entitled In The Spirit
Of Things (1988).  Several news reports, feature stories, and
documentaries later, the town reached a strange sort of tourist
status that none of the other ghost towns ever acquired.   When I
first visited Neosho Falls in 1976, in preparation for placing it as
one of the towns in Volume Two, it was an unbelievable place.  
People had packed up and literally left the town and their belong-
ings after the last flood.  It was like walking back in the past.  With
fame and notoriety comes attention, and tourists began dragging
off bits and pieces of Neosho Falls with each passing visit.  Today
the town is still impressive but nothing like my first visit in 1976. 

In 1976, in partnership with long-time friend Cory Barron, a series
was done on Shawnee County Ghost Towns.  Some of the inform-
ation utilized in this presentation was used in Volume Two.

Volume Two continued to have successful sales for years.  The
writing was better than Volume One.  It gained a new audience
among those who lived in Western Kansas and Southeast Kansas,
two areas that did not immediately purchase Volume One.  The
continued success led to the third volume in 1983.  

Substantial increases in printing costs led to increased book
prices.  Volume One originally sold for $5.95 in 1976.  Printing
costs nearly doubled in the short time between Volume One and
Volume Two.  The original price of Volume Two retailed for
$11.95, with the profit margin the same. Increases in printing
costs would continue through Volume Three. 

A note on the photography.  Most of the photographs were
done on a 35mm single lens reflex camera for Ghost Towns I,
II, and III.  A small percentage of photographs made it into
the three volumes.  Nearly a thousand images remain as slides
from my many travels from 1973 to 1987. There was a time I
considered including them in a book on Kansas color
photography, with a working title of F Stops In Kansas. 
Before this book went anywhere, three color photography
books on Kansas were released in a four year period.  The
market was glutted.   Maybe someday I will reconsider.  
In the meantime, I will publish some of them on this website.

Folks have asked how many ghost towns I actually visited.  
I put 10,000 miles on my first and second cars travelling
around Kansas. In the end, I visited all but a handful of the
300 documented in the first three volumes.   For many, there
was nothing left to see but cemeteries and empty fields.  
Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.   In later years,
I would run into Ghost Towns of Kansas fans at many of my
ghost towns I was revisiting.

Playlist:

Achilles, Rawlins County

Abram, Lincoln County

Arkalon, Seward County

Arrington, Atchison County

Beach Valley, Rice County

Beer City, Seward County

Belle Meade, Meade County

Brownsville, Shawnee County

Bushong, Lyon County

California, Lane County

Chalk Bluffs, Gove County

Chelsea, Butler County

Clarksburg, Bourbon County

Clear Water, Sedgwick County

Clinton, Douglas County

Cofachiqui, Allen County

Comanche City, Comanche County

Coolidge, Hamilton County

Coon Point, Douglas County

Crawfordsville, Crawford County

Dayton, Bourbon County

Decora, Lyon County

Detroit, Dickinson County

Douglas, Douglas County

Elizabethtown, Anderson County

Elmendaro, Lyon County

Fairview, Brown County

Fargo Springs, Seward County

Fossil Station, Russell County

Four Houses, Wyandotte County

Freedom Colony, Bourbon County

Geographic Center, Crawford County

Gilfillan, Bourbon County

Guilford, Wilson County

Hartland, Kearny County

Herzog, Ellis County

Hunnewell, Sumner County

Kansas Center, Rice County

Kaw City, Jefferson County

Last Chance, Barber County

Lerado, Reno County

Magnolia, Sedgwick County

Mairestown, Shawnee County

Mannings Point, Sumner County

Marshall, Sedgwick County

Meade Center, Meade County

Midian, Butler County

Mineral Point, Anderson County

Monmouth, Nemaha County

Monticello, Johnson County

Monument, Gove County

Moodyville, Pottawatomie County

Mount Aeola, Douglas County

Mount Jesus, Clark County

Neosho Falls, Woodson County

Nicodemus, Graham County

Octagon City, Allen County

Oil Hill, Butler County

Old Kiowa, Barber County

Ottumwa, Coffey County

Oxide, Ellsworth County

Paul Doon Station, Ellis County

Pierceville, Finney County

Pond City, Wallace County

Quindaro, Wyandotte County

Ravanna, Finney County

Rio, Ford County

Rising Sun, Jefferson County

Rossville, Crawford County

Salamanca, Cherokee County

Saratoga, Pratt County

Scranton, Osage County

Severance, Doniphan County

Silkville, Franklin County

Sing Sing, Sumner County

Skiddy, Morris County

Smallwood, Comanche County

Springfield, Seward County

State Line, Cheyenne County

Stull, Douglas County

Sumner City, Shawnee County

Sveadal, McPherson County

Terry, Finney County

Treece, Cherokee County

Union City, Sumner County

Uniontown, Shawnee County

Voorhees, Stevens County

Voltaire, Sherman County

Wallace, Wallace County

West Mineral, Cherokee County

White Woman Creek, Wichita County

Woodsdale, Stevens County

Woodville, Russell County

Yale, Crawford County