If It's Thursday, Then This Must Be Kanorado

                                              The 153 residents of Kanorado welcome you

With nothing pressing on the agenda, today seemed like a perfectly fine day to venture east along the very first interstate ever built in the U.S., I-70. The highway pretty much traces old route 40, with two wide lanes of two-lane blacktop in each direction separated by an even wider grass center divider. 

Packed up a few supplies (CD's and Rock Star, whoo!), made a quick stop to fuel up, and got on the road!

Leaving Denver far behind for the day

Denver is by far the largest city in a radius of over 500 miles, especially when one heads east. Most of the towns and cities along I-70 have populations of 5,000 or fewer at best, with the majority being half that.

The land east of Denver is flat, but far from dull. I-70 parallels the railroad, and there is always something interesting to see being hauled by the train, and truckers hauling everything from huge bridge spans to gigantic mechanical constructions of unknown purpose fly on past as you make your way east.

Blades for wind turbines being transported by rail

Once you get past the small agricultural community of Strasburg, about 30 miles east of Denver, it's a good 50 miles of rolling Plains until you get to another small agricultural community, Limon.

By the time Limon came in view, Westerberg's 2002 release Stereo was about to replay at track 1 (Baby Learns To Crawl, with the awesome imagery of the lyric "watching Daddy's skin") so in went the Maccabees latest, Given To The Wild

The town of Limon is the most populous town in all of Lincoln county, with 1,880 residents (I do not know if that figure includes the inmates at the Limon Correctional Facility though). 

Limon is proud of it's railroad history

Limon is the end of the line for the small Kyle Railroad, and where it meets up with the Union Pacific Railroad. Railroads have been a big part of Limon since the 1870's, and the town has devoted a large area of park land to celebrate that heritage.

The Limon Heritage Museum & Railroad Park is recommended

The rail cars and engines on display range from fully restored and refurbished classics to somewhat dilapidated workhorses awaiting their turn at some tender loving care. 

Plow Train at the Limon Railroad Park

The Heritage Museum also showcases some of the traditional implements and machinery found on the farms and ranches in the area. The museum itself was closed for the season (on Labor Day - missed it by that much!), but the grounds are always open and there are a lot of nifty bits of history strewn about.

Cool Windmill at the Limon Heritage Museum

If you love windmills (Com'on, who doesn't love windmills?) there are quite a few decommissioned old ones that have been recovered from farms and ranches and are now displayed in a virtual forest of windmills at the Heritage Museum 

U.P.R.R. scale used to weigh calves on the last cattle drive - in 1950! Limon, Co

There is also a great collection of items that highlight how the railroads served the ranchers and farmers by conveying their goods to markets throughout the country. 

Almost 1,900 people call the Hub City home

Limon is nicknamed the Hub City as it is where Interstate 70, three U.S. Highways (24, 40, & 287) and two Colorado state highways (71 & 86) intersect. You can pretty much get to anywhere in the U.S. from Limon.

Hmmm...maybe they should adapt "All Roads Lead To Limon" as a motto and build a large Roman-esque arch over the main street. Give the place a theme.

Downtown Burlington looks a bit busy for a Thursday afternoon

The next major stop along I-70 eastbound is Burlington, Colorado. If you thought the drive to Limon was resplendent with miles and miles of beautiful prairie, you are in for 75 more miles of heaven. If not, well, you'll just have to use your imagination to fill in the gaps.

As the Maccabees disc was starting to repeat itself, a C&W compilation CD was popped in, and the opening strains of Whippin' That Old T.B. by Jimmy Rodgers filled the cab of the truck. 

There is a living snow fence running sporadically along the north side of I-70. Trees are planted in rows three deep, and fill in gaps between the low washes and hills where snow would accumulate in drifts and block the highway.

1905 Philadelphia Toboggan Co. No. 6 Carousel in Burlington

Burlington, Colorado is a great little place. It boasts a little more than twice the population of Limon, and also has some of the more interesting attractions in all of the Colorado Central Plains. The Kit Carson County Carousel is in Burlington, though there was no access to it today as it was closed for the season (yep, Labor Day). 

The Kit Carson County Carousel was built in 1905 for Elitch Gardens in Denver. When Elitch Gardens got a new one in 1928, they sold this one to Kit Carson County for $1,200 (that included the band organ and transportation by rail).

The carousel has been lovingly restored and is housed on the Kit Carson County Fairgrounds in Burlington.

The barn at The Old Town, Burlington 

Perhaps the best roadside attraction in all of Colorado is the Old Town in Burlington. The Old Town is a unique indoor and outdoor museum that features over six acres of amazingly well-restored old buildings - shops, schoolhouses, chapels, homes, saloons, railroad buildings, and one heckuva huge barn, complete with period furnishings and artifacts.

This old barn was moved from it's original location to the Old Town. It is 40 feet wide, 80 feet long, and 44 feet high - quite the accomplishment, moving it in one piece and all.

Pioneer sod house replica in the Old Town, Burlington

There is a complete replica of a pioneer's sod house on the grounds. Sod houses were built all over the Great Plains States, but being as how they were made of dirt, not too many survive to this day. There may be 15 or 16 of these structures on display worldwide (including one in Wheat Ridge, a suburb near Denver, but that one has a plaster coating protecting the exterior)

Old store fronts and homes in the Old Town, Burlington

The Old Town has not been set up as an exact replica of a specific old town, more so as a sampling of the type of buildings that were common to the small towns of the Plains states. 

The place has something of an Events/Convention Center aspect to it - for a fee, it is available for weddings, class and family reunions, seminars, etc.

There was no indication they would be putting on an old west haunted house (haunted saloon? barn?) or had a pumpkin patch/hayride dealio for Halloween, but how cool would that be? 

Shops along a replica of an old west wooden sidewalk, Burlington

While most of the attractions in Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson and Lincoln Counties are only open from Memorial Day through Labor Day, that is not the case with the Old Town. It is open year round, 9 to 5 Monday through Saturday and Noon to 5 on Sunday. Admission for adults is $6.00, less for seniors and those 17 and younger.

No wonder the place is empty - the service is horrible

The Old Town actually has a few working businesses amid the restored buildings. There is a real saloon where you can watch Cancan girls dance, and a real old-fashioned soda fountain where you can get hand-dipped ice cream treats. No one was working the soda fountain today, so I had to go without.

Native American tipi recreation in the Old Town museum

Entrance into the Old Town is through a building known as the Emporium. This very large building houses a very well curated museum, replete with some very well put together displays and dioramas. Was the fact that everything is done very well mentioned?

Early Plains settler's wagon in the Old Town museum

The attention to detail in the building of the exhibits is quite extraordinary. These are obviously labors of love, and it's a shame that they are almost hidden away in such a small town.

The cattle rancher's gear and tools of the trade at the Old Town museum

The displays cover just about the entire history of the settlement of Colorado's Central Plains, with considerable attention payed to the hardy people who first tilled the soil and braved the harsh winters in order to establish what has since become an important contributor to the breadbasket of America. 

38 star United States flag (1865 -1867) at the Old Town museum

The museum has a great collection of period clothing and household items, as well as kitchen gadgetry, early cameras and radios, and even a military history room that spotlights the service and sacrifices made by area residents from the Indian skirmishes through the present day

The State Armory building in Burlington

There is a State Armory in Burlington that looks to date back to at least the early years of the 20th century. it is a castle-like brick structure, and it has a small park in front of it. There does not appear to be any activity associated with it though, as the building was locked up tight.

Kanorado, Kansas has all the modern conveniences

Kanorado, Kansas is a short 14 mile drive due east from Burlington. If you blink as you cross the state line into Kansas, you will not notice anything different in the way of scenery - the Great Plains are the Great Plains, regardless of geopolitical boundaries.

Kanorado is a little quiet this afternoon

Kanorado may well be the smallest place I've ever been that has at least one paved road (just the one). Supposedly, 153 people live in Kanorado, but I only saw 5, and I think one of those people was someone who had changed his shirt and hat by the time I had made the U-turn to get back on I-70.

Goodland, Kansas is a very progressive place with both Cowboys and Cowgirls

From Kanorado it's 22 miles to Goodland, which was about as far as I was going to drive into Kansas. Not that Kansas isn't a great place to drive, but half the day was gone and I wanted to see what Goodland had to offer and then get back home to beautiful Lakewood.

Being as it was the Kansas section of I-70, the Kansas compilation CD replaced the C&W CD. The Rainmakers Let My People Go, Go blared from the speakers. Get out and have a good time indeed.

24' by 32' reproduction of Van Gogh's Sunflowers by Canadian artist Camron Cross 

From I-70 a huge easel (huge = 80 freaking feet tall) with a large (large = 24 foot by 32 foot) reproduction of Van Gogh's 3 Sunflowers In A Vase on it is visible. That alone will make even the mildly curious pull over. Being grossly overwhelmed by curiosity, it was like the Deathstar's tractor beam to me.

The city of Denver has an eerie fascination with ordinary- items-made-huge as art, so it's surprising this isn't in Denver.

Winnipeg-based artist Camron Cross got the idea to create 80-foot tall (that's 25 meters tall if you're in Canada...or pretty much the rest of the world) easels and bedeck them with copyright-free reproductions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers series back in 1995.

He erected this one in 2002. His plans call for one on every continent. So far, there is one in Emerald, Australia (which was put up in '99), and the first one that was built in 1996 in Altoona, Manitoba, Canada. 

I wish him the best of luck with the Antarctica installation.

Downtown Goodland will be hosting the Flatlander Festival next weekend

Small towns in the Central Plains are often dismissed as being pretty much the same. The ol' cliche that if you've seen one, you've seen them all is stated so often it becomes readily easy to believe.

It is not true. Each and every small town has it's own  character, and being as how most of the towns of the Central Plains are small enough to tour completely in about an hour, it's easy to find each small town's unique aspects. 

Diorama of early Plains settlers in the High Plains museum, Goodland, Kansas

Aside from the large Van Gogh giving the Nelsen-Atkins Museum's Shuttlecocks a run for their money, Goodland also has the High Plains museum, dedicated to preserving the history of the Plains, from the Native Americans of the area (despite the fact that no evidence exists of Native Americans ever inhabiting the area - it's a fairly barren area that was known as the Great American Desert before the settlers were able to cultivate it) to the modern day.

It is a small museum, and most exhibits could be viewed in less than half an hour. Admission is free though donations of $3.00 for adults are suggested. The place is open until 5:00 pm everyday except Tuesdays, year round (closed on all the holidays).

The Plains museum has the first patented helicopter built in the U.S., in Goodland, Kansas. 

The museum boasts a replica of the very first rotary-winged aircraft built in the U.S. that was awarded a patent. The craft was built by two Goodland residents who worked as machinists for the Rock Island Railroad, Charles Wilson and William Purvis.

There had been a few other rudimentary helicopters built and flown before these two put their contraption together, but Wilson and Purvis were the ones awarded the first patent.

Theirs was a double-bladed device, which, when finally demonstrated on Thanksgiving Day of 1909, didn't fly.

They did manage to attract a few investors with the demonstration however, and plugged away at building a feasible machine that would fly. Their efforts were for naught however, as the craft failed again and was never rebuilt after the second crash. The company was dissolved soon after. 

Early Pioneers statue in Goodland, Kansas

Goodland is the county seat for Sherman County (There's a good story of how that came about but that's for you to look up). In front of the County Courthouse is a statue by Greg Todd entitled They Came To Stay that commemorates the tenacity of the early Pioneers. It is a classic sculpture that readily conveys the strength of spirit these hardy people possessed.

United Telephone building, downtown Goodland, Kansas

There are a number of buildings in Goodland built in the Art Deco style that was in fashion during the 1920's and '30's. The United Telephone building was built in 1931 and incorporates Native American design motifs on the exterior and interior of the building.

The Sherman County courthouse also sports clean Art Deco lines, as do a few other buildings along Main Street. The Carnegie Library, which was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style that was popular in the 1910's when it was built, is now the Carnegie Arts Center, as the town voted to build a larger, modern Library in the early '70's.

Rusted old cars awaiting restoration in Goodland, Kansas

Most classic car aficionados have long known that the small towns of the Great Plains are prime hunting grounds for old cars ready for restoration. The legend of the rare, one-owner, barn-stored rusting classic is so prevalent that it has entered the lexicon, and the term barn-find is bandied about by restorers and collectors at conventions and shows everywhere.

Goodland has it's share of classic vehicles awaiting a dedicated restorer. Not only sitting in the fields of the farms that surround the town, but right along Main Street. take your pick and have at it!

Goodland sports a modern watertower...sleek

Goodland is one of the small towns along I-70 that has been able to remain in step with the modern world - The library that replaced the Carnegie Library boasts a bank of computers for public use, and to think the area is backwards in any sense would be foolish. The world has definitely not passed this great little town by.

The Ennis-Handy house, a beautifully restored Victorian in Goodland, Kansas

Which is not to say that Goodland is one of those places that scrapes away it's past without care, If anything, Goodland has managed to blend the old and the new masterfully. The fully restored Victorian home above is now owned by the Sherman County Historical Society and is a neat little visit to a time before television and cell phones.

Barn house in Goodland, Kansas

One of the more interesting elements that constitute small towns are the private homes, as there are very few large-scale suburbs sporting cookie-cutter homes. Most people build their own homes to suit their tastes, and it makes for neighborhoods of distinct character.

Complete with white picket fence

Most of the people of Goodland seem to have very traditional ideas of what a house should look like. This house, with it's classic symmetry and flower boxes, could have been featured in the first issue of Home & Garden.

Deep snow will not stop this soccer mom from her appointed rounds

Of course, every town in the world has a few eccentrics who display their eccentricities for all the world to see. There were quite a few monster trucks in Goodland...and this monster station wagon.

'50's modern in the heart of the Plains, Goodland, Kansas

For such a small town, Goodland has a wide range of architectural styles in evidence. This town could bill itself as a living museum of 20th century American residential architecture.

English Tudor inspiration for a home in Goodland, Kansas 

The residential architecture even shows a little bit of the influence of the ancestral homelands of many of the early settlers of Goodland and the surrounding area. 

Not only is this underground home energy efficient, I bet it's great at dodging tornadoes

Driving through the neatly gridded-out neighborhoods a few of the more esoteric homes were spotted. This is one of two underground homes, both of which seem to have been built using the same plans.

Contemporary ranch home with excellent yard art

Goodland residents like to decorate their yards, and I have to say, they do a damn good job of it. I don't believe I passed one home that didn't have something personalizing the yard. Most of it was cool - I don't think covenents or HOA's are a concern in Goodland.

Denver has very little public art that is as fun and fanciful as this guy's yard art in Goodland, Kansas

Whovever created these peices is a big talent. Incorporating bits of old weathervanes, anemometers, tractor parts and other salvaged bits, these kinetic sculptures would look good anywhere.

I'm not certain, but having large concrete grain silos may be required by Kansas state law

At it's core, Goodland is a agricultural community. from I-70 the large concrete grain silos fill the skyline. It's what hides behind them that needs to be seen. If you happen to be driving along I-70 through the Great Plains and maybe get to thinking that there is nothing but one boring small town after another boring small town to be rushed by, you are cheating youself.

Slow down, pull off the highway, treat yourself to a small-town burgerstand burger, and tour the place. It will be worth it.

Heading back to Denver after a long day's journey

All in all, this was a fun day. The weather was perfect for a drive, and I saw and learned plenty about an area of the country probably 90% of the people residing in the U.S. will never see, much to their detriment.

Urge Overkill celebrated Blackie's Birthday as the sun started to drop behind the horizon. The passenger door speaker crackled with static from a bum cone as the Welcome to Colorful Colorado sign marked my departure from the Sunflower State.

I cracked open a Rock Star and sang along loudly with Nash Kato. The view of Kansas in the rearview mirror was just small islands of twinkling lights marking the little Prairie settlements.

I'll be back.