Kansas Ghost Towns: The Top Ten

#10: Alcove Springs, Marshall County Featured In: Ghost Towns Vol. One and Travelers Guide. Alcove Springs was never officially a town. That is what places it at number ten because otherwise, this is quite a find. Located north of Blue Rapids, Alcove Springs was a stop on the Oregon- California Trail. Today it is a community park, and folks can visit the site without requesting permission from private landowners. Alcove Springs was named because of an alcove of rock that over- hangs a cold spring that runs crystal clear most of the year. In the 1830's, 1840's, and 1850's, hundreds of wagons would stop there while waiting for the waters of the Big Blue River to subside from spring rains. While they waited, many pioneers carved their names or other inscriptions into the hard limestone rock, leaving permanent impressions of their journey to the West. Today many of these inscriptions still exist on the rock overhang and limestone formations nearby. Arguably, this is perhaps the most historic Oregon-California Trail site in Kansas. In addition to the springs site, there is a grave marker for Sarah Keyes, the eldest member of the famed Donner Party, on one of the many foot trails through the park. Folks may remember the Donner Party from their U.S. History class. This was the wagon train that got caught in heavy snow in the Sierra Nevadas of California and had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Keyes was the first casualty, passing away along the trail here at Alcove Springs. Alcove Springs is a fast track backwards in time. I highly recommend it. Lots of rock inscriptions and the area is relatively untouched since the Oregon Trail days.

#9: Bushong, Lyon County Featured In: Ghost Towns Vol. Two and Travelers Guide. Bushong was a typical railroad town. Named after a Chicago baseball player, the place grew rapidly in the 1880's and 1890's. Hugging the edge of the Flint Hills, it held great promise. Then along came the Depression years of the 1930's. The town began a downhill fall that it never recovered from. What makes Bushong #9 on the list is the deserted main street that travelers can see today. Take a walk down main street is like a walk back in time. The old post office sits deserted, its doors wide open and old mail lying on the wooden floor. The car repair shop had two old Volvo's from the 1940's sitting behind locked creaky doors. Across the road is an old gas station/ beer tavern combination. The old sign creaking in the wind is some of the only noise a person will hear. Down the road sits the deserted schoolhouse, perhaps the last usable structure in town before consolidation. Bushong is a rare gem, a unique ghost town find. Few inhabitants live in the immediate vicinity, and downtown is relatively preserved. However, with each successive year, things get torn down and carted away. Visit this one as soon as you can before it disappears.

#8 Sunflower Village, Johnson County Featured In: Ghost Towns of Kansas: Revisited The recently proposed site of the Land of Oz theme park, Sunflower Village is a step back in the not-so-distant past, to the 1940's and 1950's. The village itself was constructed for workers at the long- lived Sunflower Ordnance Works plant where, on top of everything else, they were instrumental in building bombs for the war effort. A company town literally mushroomed overnight in the shadow of the plant. Through World War II, the Cold War, and Vietnam, a real or perceived need kept the plant going, thus keeping the town populated. With the closure of the plant, many residents moved on. Today much of the town is still there, as is the large plant. It is indeed a step back in time, even if that time was just to the 1940's. Land of Oz theme park aside, it will probably still be here, in ruins, for some time further.

#7: Wallace, Wallace County Featured In: Ghost Towns Vol. 2 and Travelers Guide There are a lot of good Western Kansas ghost towns to explore, such as Coyote, in Trego County; Ravanna, Finney County, or even Coolidge and/or Kendall, Hamilton County. I chose Wallace because the area is so steeped in history you can shake a stick at it. There is nearby ghostly Fort Wallace, there is also Monument Station and Pond Creek Station. All these places were besieged by Cheyenne Indians before they were discontinued. The town of Wallace comes up out of nowhere in some of the prettiest Western Kansas terrain you will see any- where. The town was big in its day-- perhaps as many as 1,500 people when the railroad first went through. It had the largest store between Kansas City and Denver-- the Robidoux Store. The place went downhill thru most of the 20th century, and remains an intriguing ghost. Walk around main street and you can almost hear the ghosts following you. Great photo opportunities. The only negative mark is the Robidoux Store no longer exists. It is nothing but a depression in the sod. Other than that, enjoy. Places like Ravanna, Coyote, Sheridan, etc., sit on private prop- erty. I have trouble recommending them when permission must be attained to see them. Wallace offers some great ghost town views and most of the town is on public property, which is a good thing. Also, visit the town museum and the Fort Wallace cemetery. Spooky places indeed!

#6: Irving, Marshall County Featured In: Ghost Towns Vol. 3 and Travelers Guide Irving, and the Wizard of Oz, were primarily responsible for giving Kansas the title, The Cyclone State. In May 1879, the town of 300 was decimated by two tornadoes an hour apart. One destroyed the southern end of town, while the other destroyed the northern end. Very little was left unscathed. While other towns in Kansas have suffered similar fates (such as Greensburg this year), two tornadoes an hour apart remains quite coincidental. Irving rebuilt only to be abandoned with the construction of Tuttle Creek Reservoir 45 years ago. The grim reality is that Tuttle Creek has never inundated the town with water, so was it really necessary to abandon it? Today, the townsite is on corps land, so it is essentially on public property. You can walk the lonely streets, kick a few building foundation stones, even leave a message for future travelers in a mailbox set up towards the center of town. For ghost town hunters, this one is worth the trip. Very intriguing. You can almost see the ghosts of Dorothy and Toto riding down main street.

#5: Empire City, Cherokee County Featured in: Ghost Towns Vol. 1 and Travelers Guide The entire Tri-State Lead and Zinc mining region that encompasses the borders of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri is a fascinating region of abandoned mines, chat piles, and buildings rusting in the sun. The region is worth a visit. Towns such as Picher, Oklahoma, Galena, Kansas, and other mining camps are dangerously undermined now, but also an exciting place for pictures. When I first visited the area in the 1970's, there were junk piles all over. Rusty cars, mining equipment, and just weird trash littered the area for miles. Obviously the marketability of the mines played out, and the towns surrounding them went downhill. An early casualty was Empire City, which was located directly across Short Creek from Galena. It was founded in the 1870's, boomed to 3,000 miners in a matter of 30 days, and declared war on nearby Galena. When the smoke cleared, the town went rapidly downhill as quickly as it boomed. By 1910, most of the town was annexed to Galena. Today, some old buildings still exist once you cross Short Creek from Galena. The area has cleaned up its act a bit. Many of the rusty cars are gone now, as well as the junk. Some of the mine shafts still exist and the chat piles next to them. If you go, make sure your memory card will hold a few hundred pictures. You'll need them all.

#4: Uniontown, Shawnee County Featured in: Ghost Towns Vol. 1 and Travelers Guide Uniontown (the Shawnee County one), is where I got my start. A bizarre, haunted place, it is located about three miles southeast of Willard. Uniontown was the first real Kansas community. It was located on a branch of the Oregon Trail, on a high, wooded bluff not far from where the trail crossed the Kansas River. It was established in 1848 as an annuity payment point for the Pottawatomie Indians. About 300 inhabitants lived there, and, while it is described as having one long main street of stores, in reality it was a motley collection of stores, 60 or so in all, that went up all over the townsite. In 1849, cholera raged through the area, and the town was not only abandoned but burned down as well. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it was rebuilt but lasted only until around 1855, when the traders there moved on to more inviting climes, like Topeka and Manhattan. The town was a who's who of early and notable settlers and businessmen. Most were not impressed with the town, nor did they say something much about it later. It disappeared from the face of the earth sometime in the late 1850's, when the Pottawatomies, claimed that the site was "poison," burned down the town again. Admittedly, a large portion of the town sits on private property in a plowed field, some buildings, and part of the trail, exist at the Greene Wildlife Refuge across the road. In fact, one building stood where the parking lot now stands. Across the road is the original Uniontown cemetery, with many mass and forgotten graves from the cholera epidemic, including a mass grave of 33 people. The area has a spooky feeling about it. Not exactly a great place to be on Halloween night. Enjoy.

#3: Diamond Springs, Morris County Featured in: Ghost Towns of Kansas Vol. 2 and Travelers Guide Another trail town, this time the Santa Fe Trail, Diamond Springs is in the middle of the picturesque Flint Hills in a lonely spot that time has forgotten. During the peak years of the Santa Fe Trail, the place was an active spot for trading and getting supplies, much like Council Grove. When the Santa Fe Railroad came through the area, a railroad depot and town mushroomed here. The town disappeared, much like the trading stores from the trail. However, the actual spring still exists, and runs into Diamond Creek. Some very old ruins still remain to mark the location of the site. It does take some navigation to find it, but I would highly recommend this ghost town for ruins and scenery. So much so that I place it at #3 status.

#2: Mildred, Allen County Featured in: Faded Dreams While the cement industry was not quite as glamorous as gold or silver mining, it fostered a boom, especially in Southeast Kansas, just when lead and zinc mining was seeing a depression. One of the largest cement company towns was Mildred, located in Allen County. Mildred grew to a town of about 900 people prior to World War I and immediately after, when the cement industry was at its peak. Next to Mildred was a huge monolith to cement: a cement plant. The number of huge buildings constructed remains a mystery, but the plant was huge. The post World War I time period brought about a decline in cement demand. One of the largest cement orders from this plant went to Kansas City. It was the construct ion of the famed Liberty Memorial. When the depression years hit, the plant closed down. Much of the plant was dynamited, and left to rot. The town went dramatically downhill to its present near ghost town status. The town is interesting enough, but the plant is unbelievable. You can still visit the cement plant today. Buildings sit in enormous underbrush and growth just north of the town. They look like ruins from some Aztec civilization. One building after another rises in the underbrush. Out on the highway that runs next to Mildred is one left-over cement grain elevator that is a direct descendent of the plant. Be careful!! The plant, while unbelievably large and a photographer's dream, also contains dynamite holes in the concrete that force severe drop-offs with no warning. Just watch your step and spider webs and you will be okay. It is highly recommended. And the winner is:

#1: Neosho Falls, Woodson County Featured In: Ghost Towns of Kansas Vol. 2 and Travelers Guide Quite simply, the most famous Kansas ghost town. The rock band Kansas wrote a concept album around it. It is featured on this web site. Several documentaries have been done on it. I was involved in many of them. I first discovered Neosho Falls in 1978 by accident. I had no idea what to expect, it was just one of the towns I was researching for Volume Two. It was like walking back in time. Most of main street was deserted, but the hardware store had hardware on the shelves; town hall had a rotting stage with a rotting piano on the stage. Sheet music blew in the breeze. One building, probably a general store, had antique furniture rotting away in it. The town school had pictures of the graduating class still hanging on the walls, even though everything was wide open and you could walk through it. The bank had a wide open safe against one wall. Unfortunately, nothing in that, but a guy can dream can't he? Neosho Falls was, and is, a walk back in time. Since 1978 and my books, things have been carted off and disappeared. Some of the buildings have deteriorated to the point that I wouldn't recommend walking on their floors, especially the town meeting hall. The school is still unique but again, watch your step. Neosho Falls met its fate due to the 1951 flood, which ravaged the town. Nothing much was left. People walked away, leaving their homes and businesses to whomever or whatever. Please respect what is left. It is still very impressive, but leave it for others to discover. Visit the town cemetery and the falls over the river, which give the town its name. All very fascinating. There is also an old gas station/tavern across the river in ruins that makes for some great photographs. I would love to hear updated information about these places. Let me know what you find and share your photos. I will be happy to post them on this site. Happy ghost town hunting!