#48 KANSAS

There’s no place like Kansas. How can one contemplate Kansas without conjuring up images of Dorothy and Toto and friends? I’ve never read the L. Frank Baum book but I couldn’t begin to guess how many times I’ve seen the classic movie. As a child I used to run outside the room when the evil flying monkeys filled the screen. Coincidence that Miss Able, the first monkey in space, is from Independence , KS? I think not.

Entering the Sunflower State at Coffeyville, I was impressed by the wild west appearance of the small town. Indeed, there is true lore. The notorious Dalton gang botched a bank robbery here with only one of the three brothers surviving. The town looks to be about the same, sans outlaws (I presume).

My foray into southeastern Kansas then took on a distinctive literary slant. I’ve been having a difficult time locating my Kansas book. I really should have just ordered it and vowed to put Amazon.com through its paces after a quick scan in an Independence, KS bookstore. I was ruminating over this while cruising north along Highway 169 and what appears in the middle of an erstwhile cornfield? Amazon’s Kansas Distribution facility. Who knew? If only they had a retail outlet! Oh well, I took it as a sign and placed the order that evening.

Independence has several claims to fame aside from flying monkeys. Playwright William Inge hails from his small town and Laura Ingalls Wilder settled here and wrote of the area in Little House on the Prairie. I read the book as my South Dakota read, along with The Long Winter, not realizing I would actually visit the site of her little house in Independence. There is a display of Inge’s original manuscripts and memorabilia at the Independence Community College and they host an impressive William Inge Theatrical Festival annually. Inge is know for such classics as Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop and Splendor in the Grass. His small town roots came through in his writings and he is hailed as a local hero today. He died in 1973 and is buried in the local cemetery. I can’t help but wonder how his underlying themes of sexual repression went over in his hometown in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Was he equally acclaimed in that era?

A few miles south of town is the where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived 1869-71. There’s a replica of the little house that I had a hard time imagining how her family and so many others like them managed to live together in.


After snapping a few pictures I made my way back to Oklahoma.

A few more Kansas items of note:

Hutchinson has an enormous grain elevator that is ½ mile long.

Kansas produced enough wheat for 33 billion loaves of bread in 1990.

An old law in Kansas made it illegal to serve ice cream on cherry pie. Desert lovers can relax, it has been repealed.

Susan Madora Salter was elected to office in Argonia in 1887, becoming the first female mayor in the US.

Dodge City has the blustery distinction of the windiest city in the nation.

The Kansas song just had to be Glenn Campbell’s Wichita Lineman "And I need you more than want you/ And I want you for all time." I must confess every time I hear this song I then want to listen to Rhinestone Cowboy “Like a rhinestone cowboy, riding on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo” How great is that?!

I mentioned to my Kansas book above. I’m really looking forward to reading Last Cattle Drive by Robert Day.

"Spangler Star Tukle is a Kansas cattleman with 6,000 acres and a low boiling point. (Tukle is so choleric that he empties a shotgun into a power mower that has offended him.) When the rancher decides to drive his 250 head of cattle to the Kansas City stockyards to save shipping costs, you can expect Murphy's Law to become 100 percent operative. . . . Atmospheric."--New York Times Book Review

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