Travels with Twinkles: Junction City, Kansas

October 8 - 10, 2017:

A calm, sunny travel day was appreciated today on our 160 mile trip from Lincoln, Nebraska to Junction City, Kansas. It was almost entirely on route 77 through endless corn country and grass lands. In Kansas we crossed the routes of the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express, it's been awhile since we last saw those signs. Our destination, the West Rolling Hills Campground is a Corp of Engineers site on Milford Lake which is a largest lake in Kansas formed by the Damming of the Republican River. It’s a beautiful campground right on the lake with electric and water hookups for $10 a night with the senior pass.

The Oketo Cutoff was a stage coach road used in 1862-1863
for the Pikes Peak Express and the Central Overland California

Pony Express station, it's hard to imagine these days that this
is how the mail once traveled across country

Big wide campsites

with lake views are always good

View from a trail in the campground

The city of Junction City is about 7 miles from the campground and gets its name from being on the junction of the Republican and the Smokey Hill Rivers which join to form the Kansas River. It’s a typical army town, home of the Fort Riley and the Army’s first Infantry Division, the “Big Red One” with a very blighted looking section near the army base. I haven’t seen this many gentlemen clubs aka strip clubs and boarded up businesses in a very long time.

This area of Kansas was covered by a huge sea during the Permian geologic period about 250 million years ago resulting in deposits of Limestone and Shale with layers of Chert (Flint). The weathering of these deposits has resulted in a gravely soil which is poor for agriculture, but better suited for livestock. The area became known as the “Flint Hills” covered by native grasslands including the largest remaining tall grass prairie preserves in the country.

Due to the availability of limestone, it was used as the primary building material in Junction City and has stood the test of time really well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junction_City,_Kansas

The Civil War Memmorial Arch built in 1898

The C.L. Hoover Opera House built in 1898 was restored a few years ago, a huge
success story in a poor city like this

The Opera House from the side

Mural in the lobby of the Opera House

The Buffalo Soldiers Monument

I went into the Club, it's nothing to brag about

Limestone was used extensively

George Smith willed his entire estate to the city in 1905 with
the stipulation that they build a library

Twinkles was not impressed with this quilt store

I was impressed by this old sign for the JC Bar, I
suppose it was originally a cigar Store

I was going to go in, but after seeing the rough
looking characters standing outside decided against it

The Central National Bank was a beauty

The Exchange Bank is another

The Geary County Courthouse

The first Territorial Capital of Kansas was located just outside Junction City, but it only lasted for a few months during the turbulent days leading up to the Civil War. I attempted to go there but it is on Fort Riley and you need to get a special military photo ID to enter just to look at the building. It was doable, but there isn’t much to see and didn’t seem worth the hassle.

We are having weird weather which is uncomfortable in a poorly insulated RV, on Sunday it was close to 90 degrees, today the high was 45 and it will be close to freezing tonight. I decided it was a good day to start at the library in Junction City to catch up on this blog.

I then went to Stacy's Restaurant which had good reviews and sounded like my kind of place. It was filled with locals, many farmers talking about the crop harvest and yields. I had a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes covered with gravy that was excellent. Under the plastic table covering were some old photos, one showing a native american indian statue that was located about 3 miles away. I found information about it on the internet, a report from a person who had seen it and taken photos. Surprisingly, I found it, but had to settle for a far away photo as it is on private land and there was no place to park on the road. The internet account gives a pretty romanticized story on the statue involving an army hero, an Indian chief and the Spanish Coronado expedition that they discussed with someone at the Geary County Museum.

My top rated restaurant in Junction City

The mysterious and neglected Indian statue on an overgrown hillside

I have been neglecting for some time to reflect on the Native American heritage in our travels, but its been everywhere all along the way in every state we have traveled through. This area of Kansas was buffalo country covered with tall grass prairie and the Ponca, Arapaho, Pawnee, Kansa, Kiowa, Osage, Comanche and Otoe were here. This was a prime site for the indians near the confluence of the Republican and Smokey Hill Rivers. Fort Riley was established in 1853 as a post to protect travelers on the nearby Oregon and Santa Fe Trails and to protect settlers coming into the area. General Custer also lived on the fort for a while, he was always in the thick of the action, kind of like George Washington was back in revolutionary War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Riley

Indian map in the museum

I then went to the Geary County Historical Museum located in the old Junction City High School building, but didn’t ask them about the Indian statue. They have several good exhibits covering all facets of local history. They had inspirational personal accounts from various war heroes and uniforms from all US wars. They also have a collection of photos from a long time local photographer who documented everything about town for many years. There is even a bar photo taken in Junction City that was used in the opening scenes of the “Cheers” TV show.

The Museum Building

A Fort Riley pillow to send home for Mom

This was a Graphophone that Louie Volkmann used to take
to peoples homes to play music for them on Sundays. You could
say that he was the original DJ

Kaw Indian Chief "Wah Shun Gah " in
his ceremonial garb posed for a photo. He
sort of looks like Keith Richards ?

I had a pass like this once

Is there still a need for an official watch inspector ?

The old Junction City train depot

Hard to believe that Junction City one had a trolley system

The fire Department won the championship prize

It’s 35 degrees outside at 7 AM and it's a beautiful sunny day forecast to get to 65 degrees by afternoon. We head back into Junction City to the library where we buy a bag of book for $3.00, all good stuff too, then figure out our next travel destination. This has been the way we have done much of our travel planning this year, no advance planning or reservations. Next is the quilt store for Twinkles and another walk down Washington Street for me and then lunch at Stacy's Restaurant again. If I lived here, this would be my go to place, it’s great, todays special was Meat Loaf with scalloped potatoes, peas, roll, drink and desert for $6.99 and it was really good, Twinkles also cleaned her plate of eggs, hash browns and toast, yum !

After that big lunch, we need a hike, so it was back to the Corp of Engineers Milford Dam Outlet Park to get on the Riverwalk Trail. We did about 3 miles on the trail partially on an abandoned railroad bed and it was better than expected.

A hawk flying overhead

Monarch Butterfly

Owl was here and he didn't leave it clean !

Sign on the trail about the slavery debate in Kansas

Lake Milford is the largest lake in Kansas and results from an earthen dam completed by the US Army Corp of Engineers in 1962. The original town site of Milford now sits under the lake, the entire town was relocated a few miles away to its present site. The outlet of the dam is a popular fishing spot for humans and also for Eagles in the spring. In addition to the Corp of Engineers campground, there is the Milford State Park and a couple of other private campgrounds along the lake.