ACTUALLY, TOTO, THIS IS KANSAS! Knee-high corn, golden wheatfields, anti-abortion billboards and more places selling tractors than cars. The billboard-sized version of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” that welcomed us to Goodland was no match for the rainbow that followed our evening thunder storm.
Vincent would be proud
As we would learn in the coming days, Kansas was a “free state” during the days preceding the Civil War as opposed to neighboring “slave state,” Missouri. This, along with an aggressive ad campaign, explains why Nicodemus attracted many former slaves.
Truth in advertising? The dream
Carla and Lucretia, sixth generation descendants of the first settlers showed us around the Nicodemus National Historic Site, the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the American Civil War.
Nicodemus town hall Nicodemus, circa 1880
Fort Larned was one of several frontier forts constructed to aid settlers in their covered wagons and keep the Indians in check. Not surprisingly, one of the fort’s soldiers was none other than George Custer (not pictured).
Fort Larned National Historic Site
