Made It To Kansas

Halstead, Kansas             High 67 Low 45

Last Night we stayed in Burr Oak, Kansas. It was just an overnight on our way somewhere else, but for $7.00 for full hook-ups it can’t be beat. We didn’t have phone service or Wi-Fi, so this post is a day late.

We stopped at a museum in Hastings, Nebraska but I will wait till a later post to talk about it.

On our way to and from Hastings we had two firsts. The first was the Highway from I-80 to Hastings was probably the worst highway we have driven on in the 48 States. The speed limit was 65, but we couldn’t go near that. At least in Alaska you were fore-warned about the frost heaves.

After Hastings the road was a little better, but not much. The second first was after we got into Kansas. We had the most rain I have ever driven in. It was all we could do to see where to drive. We left the rain after a few miles, but when we got to Burr Oak we got rained on again for a while.

Now back to our visits in Nebraska. We went to Boot Hill in Ogallala and learned about some of the local history. I didn’t know it but Boot Hill is so named because most of the cowboys got buried with their boots on. Before Boot Hill was abandoned in 1885 when the Ogallala Cemetery west of town came into general use, at least 48 bodies were laid to rest here. It is probable that the death count was much higher. Ogallala, which during that time averaged a population of about 200 souls, was reputed to be the most violent town on the trail with an equivalently high death rate.

This horse and rider statue found on Boot Hill represents a Texas Trail cattle drover who appears to be looking over the graves and town—back over the trail—back to Texas. This bronze statue is a copy of an identical statue found in Dallas, Texas. The statue of the horse and rider was sculpted by Robert Summers. The TRAIL BOSS replaces a earlier concrete statue of a horse and rider sculpted by Dr. Gainsforth which now is located at the Ogallala Livestock Market sale barn west of town.

After Boot Hill we went to visit Lake McConaughy  which we found out is the largest Reservoir in Nebraska. At the Visitors Center is a small Museum that tells about the Dam and Lake. It was worth a visit. We could have driven around the lake, but it was about a 60 mile drive and we chose not to.

The view we had of the dam.

This is getting a bit wordy, so I will talk about the Hastings museum on later posts.

Thanks for visiting.