Day 22: October 23, 2024 Historic Hotel, Czech Comment via blog

Prev Next

Before leaving Lamar, I photographed the former gas station made of petrified wood plus a theater and windmill. I photographed the station in 2016 but not the others. The theater and windmill are just slightly off the route. A local couple built the windmill in their backyard in the 1930s and another local couple bought it and moved it here in 2005.

Not only does the town of Coolidge, KS, but also has a business of some sort named Cousin Eddie's. Or maybe that's just a decorative mural.

I stopped here in 2016 but did not walk out to the ruts described by the sign. Today I did. I always have trouble deciding whether a rut was made by a wagon a century ago or a pickup truck last year. Today I was aided by a fellow who had stopped a few minutes ahead of me an we decided that these were the ruts of interest.

The muffler man (cerveza man?) in Dodge City was kind of unexpected but not so the statue of Wyatt Earp. El Capitan also clearly belongs here. Over four million longhorns passed through Dodge City between 1875 and 1886. The last photo is of the city's dueling sundials keeping time in two different zones.

Garfield, which might be the only Kansas town named for an Ohioan, there is a nice collection of tractors, one of the D.A.R. Santa Fe Trail markers, and a chapel with a sign which talks about the James A. Garfield connection.

At Great Bend, KS, I went about thirty miles off course to spend the night in this room at the historic Midland Railroad Hotel. The hotel is in Wilson which I learned on entry is the "Czech Capital of Kansas". One indicator of that honor is the World's Largest Czech Egg which I walked over to see after checking in. The egg is next to the shell of the Wilson Opera House which burned in 2009.

[Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Next]

democrat