2024 Summer Road Trip – Part 2

Sometimes you just need to hit the road, to get away from the grind. After a stressful week, I had to get some windshield time and my supportive family let me loose to take in many small towns throughout Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. There were a number of communities that I had been eyeing to check out and this road trip turned out to be the best chance.

Provided below is the second part of my summer road trip. To read up on the first part, check out 2024 Summer Road Trip – Part 1.

Cottonwood Falls/Strong City, Kansas

As the sun rose on day three, I had to get some work done on an environmental study I was involved in, so I got off to a late start. But the first community…or communities of the day was worth the wait.

Yet, even before I got there I was drawn in by the existence of an old mill along the way. The Cedar Point Mill is readily findable on Google Maps. Though Cedar Point itself is essentially a ghost town with a number of boarded-up buildings, the mill is quite picturesque.

As I continued down Highway 50 towards Cottonwood Falls, Google Maps drew me off the road at Elmdale and sent me down Lake Road to Cottonwood Falls. Although the scenery along Lake Road was great, the road itself was poor. The deteriorated asphalt had a number of dips and bumps along the way. I thought to myself, “How can a community that has been labeled, The Coolest Place in the Midwest by one webpage have this as the main route into town?” But I didn’t realize that I was coming in the back way into town and I was quite surprised once I turned onto Broadway Street.

Downtown Cottonwood Falls is a beautiful centerpiece for this town of less than 1,000 inhabitants. Curb-to-curb brick streets lead visitors down Broadway toward the Chase County Courthouse. The courthouse sits stoically at the end of Broadway Street, where it T’s into Pearl Street. This provides a great focal point for those who enter downtown from the north. Drawing one’s eye as you stroll along the well-kept storefronts that lead to the courthouse.

The brick street also flows northward to a bridge that has been closed down to pedestrian-only traffic. The bridge crosses the Cottonwood Falls River. Here, you can take pictures of the falls and proceed over to a park on the north end.

But visiting Cottonwood Falls is not about visiting one community. Strong City is essentially a stone’s throw away, connected by a road and a prominent trail that entangles the two communities together. Strong City has its own identity wrapped around the annual Flint Hills Rodeo. But the two communities are clearly working together on a common effort to draw visitors in.

Council Grove, Kansas

Heading north from Strong City, I wandered through the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve toward Council Grove, Kansas. Much like Marion and El Dorado from the previous day, I was intrigued by Council Grove because of a nearby recreational area. Two lakes to the northwest of the community. These lakes are just a short distance from town, making them a viable amenity that the town can market.

Council Grove did not disappoint. A large painted wall sign on the side of one of the buildings on Main Street provided clear directions from downtown out to the lakes. The community also has a good variety of restaurants, shops, and a wide variety of historical points of interest. There’s also a nice riverwalk that leads into a sizeable park used for community events.

Emporia, Kansas

Leaving Council Grove, I headed off to Emporia (@CityofEmporiaKS), my next overnight town. Emporia has always been on my list to check out due to its active and award-winning Main Street program. The community was also the subject of one of my earlier posts, Emporia Sees Rise in Upper Story Housing. I was able to get my own pictures of the 700 Block Building and tour the rest of their downtown as well.

The Royal Pit Stop

What’s a road trip without a pit stop to attend a baseball game? After spending the night in Emporiia, I took Monday off from community visits to attend a Kansas City Royals game. Through an offer provided by T-Mobile, I was able to land outfield front-row tickets in Kaufmann Stadium for only $15. You can’t beat that!

I ended up spending more on two hot dogs and two beers than I did on a ticket and parking that day. But the overall bill was pretty cheap to take in a 4-1 win by the Royals.

Chillicothe, Missouri

The next morning I set off to check out one more town before returning home. The target for the day was Chillicothe, Missouri. I have had a half-written post about this town sitting amongst my drafts since 2018, the first year of Rural Resurrection’s existence. Some of what I read and heard of Chillicothe had intrigued me over the years, but I had never made a trip to this town in northwest Missouri.

Chillicothe didn’t disappoint. The “Home of Sliced Bread” has much more to interest visitors than its claim to be the home of the first commercial bread slicer. The well-cared-for downtown has numerous murals painted on the side walls of buildings. They even have an arts district in their downtown, not something you typically see in a rural town of 9,000.

More to Come…

The 2024 Summer Road Trip wasn’t just a chance to check out towns throughout in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. There are a number of other sites that I checked out that will be the source of future posts. There were several adaptive reuse projects, public art and streetscape examples, and examples of placemaking as well. The trip was well worth it and several posts on Rural Resurrection in the near future will see bits and pieces from this experience.