The Big Kansas Road Trip (BKRT) has been a topic of conversation for a year. During that time, the communities in Lincoln and Ellsworth Counties and the City of Lucas in Russell County have been busy making their communities more attractive and planning events. This event runs May 2-May 5, and potentially bring 100’s of people to our community who might have never visited before.
BKRT is a self-guided tour, but the Kansas Sampler Foundation has created a route map and various activities along the way.
Beginning in Ellsworth, visitors are invited to visit two separate jails – one from 1873 and another from 1910. The Ellsworth Area Arts Council Gallery will be open from 10 am to 2 pm. The Ellsworth County Courthouse has a place on the tour as well as the Ellsworth County Courthouse, built in 1951. A two-hour tour of the Ellsworth County Museum and Hodgden House has been planned, and visitors are invited to enjoy a round of golf at their 9-hole golf course between 9 am and 7 pm.
The Historic Bank Building was built in 1915 and offers free popcorn for those who have the munchies. The Historical Plaza Walking Tour will be available as long as the sun is up, and visitors are invited to take advantage of KANcycle bike rentals. Krizek Park is also available during daylight horse with an 18-hold disc golf course, An old missile silo has been renovated into an AirBnB. Tours on the hour and halfhour are $35 per person.
The Mother Bickerdyke Memorial Cemetery is home to 32 Civil War graves honoring Mother Bickerdyke.
Other attractions in Ellsworth County include Mushroom Rock State Park, National Drovers Hall of Fame, Preisker Park, and Svaty Ranch and Wild Horse Sanctuary will be open from 9 am to 4 pm.
Several interesting attractions also be found in Holyrood, Kanapolis and Wilson In Lincoln County, the County Line School, built in 1920, can be seen during daylight hours, and visitors might enjoy a scenic drive from Beverly to Barnard.
In Denmark the Denmark Indian Raid Monument, Denmark Lutheran Church and Denmark Hall are interesting historical sites. Enjoy a scenic drive between Denmark and Vesper.
In Lincoln, the Abram Marker designating the site of the county’s first county seat, which resides on private land, will be open for viewing. Achterberg Wild-life Friendly Demonstration Farm Nature Trail will give visitors a glimpse of the beauty of the county during a one-mile trail along Bullfoot Creek.
A Gravel Cycling Route has been created for a closeup view of the beauty of the county. Several routes are available from short trips to a 50+ mile route. An event for participants is planned for after the gravel tour.
The Bridges of Lincoln County include several limestone arched bridges. Some are under roads, some are no longer drivable, but all are worth the drive.
Lincoln County boasts several museums. Crispin’s Drug Store Museum is modeled on an old-time drug store and is filled with pharmaceutical artifacts from the 1880’s to the 1920’s. Owner and curator Jack Crispin is knowledgeable on all these items and provides an interesting and sometimes hilarious narrative. The hours are 1-5 pm on Thursday and Friday, 10 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 5 pm on Saturday and 1 pm to 5 pm on Sunday.
The Post Rock Scout Museum is right next door where artifacts of scouting organizations such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Pioneer Girls, Campfire Girls and an assortment of other organizations are on display. Owned and curated by Kathie Crispin, the museum is open the same hours as the Drug Museum.
Both the Crispin Drug Store Museum and the Post Rock Scout Museum are located in the Cummins Building, one of the first buildings in the county.
The Lincoln County Historical Museum/Kyne House Museum is easily found on W. Lincoln Avenue, where a native limestone house known as the Kyne House is adorned with wagon wheels on the exterior. One of the first limestone buildings in the county, this museum tells the real story of Lincoln County. Entrance is through the Lincoln County Historical Museum Complex. Admission is by donation.
Another part of the Historical Museum Complex is the Marshall-Yohe House located at 316 S. 2nd Street. Built in 1885, the home is a Queen Anne style Victorian home, wood framed and sitting on a limestone foundation. Visitors are invited to visit the house during Pie on the Porch on Thursday from 3-5 pm.
Also of interest to visitors is the fact that the entire downtown district has been designated as a historical site and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2020. Approximately 2/3 of the district was built between 1881 and 1920 in architectural styles ranging from Victorian, Italianate to Commercial with extensive use of native limestone.
While in the downtown area, visit Citizens State Bank to see a beautiful wall mural depicting life in Lincoln County. The mural was painted by local artist, Julia Bland. The bank will be open during business hours on Thursday and Friday.
The Lincoln Art Center (LAC) is also located downtown and is home to beautifully curated exhibits by director Joyce Harlow. The Art Center displays works from various Kansas and Midwest artists, provides lessons, has a children’s art class during the summer, and houses a gift shop of unique and handmade items by Kansas artists. LAC is open 12-4 pm Tuesday through Friday and 9 am to 12 pm on Saturday.
The KANcycle rural bike share program is located in Lincoln in front of the Lincoln County Courthouse.
The Lincoln County Courthouse was built in 1900 using native limestone. Several monuments on the grounds honor locals lost in war. This is the county’s second courthouse as the original was destroyed in a fire. The courthouse was built with limited funding, donations and volunteer labor, ensuring no debt to the members of the community on its completion. While the courthouse was being built, the county commission met in the Cummins Building.
Lincoln Carnegie Library was built in 1914, one of 59 libraries in Kansas by Andrew Carnegie. Only 24 others are still in use as a public library. The hours are Monday-Friday, 10 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm, and Saturday 9 am to 1 pm.
The Lincoln Cemetery is also enjoyed by visitors due to the age if the graves. Just in front of the mausoleum stands the gravestone of a Civil War drummer boy. Another 1891 grave is shaped like a suitcase, with an inscribed epitaph that reads “Here is where he stopped last.”
Lincoln City Park is also a landmark and houses the city pool, a 9-hold disc golf course and limestone structures made by the National Youth Administration in the 1930s, including the Scout Cabin, picnic tables, shelter and amphitheater. You can’t miss the giant cottonwood tree which is the largest in the state.
Before Lincoln was the county seat, a Methodist sermon was delivered in Abram in 1871. The Lincoln church was built in 1915 and is still used today. Visitors will see 44 stained glass windows and a beautiful dome skylight.
The Lincoln Golf Course is one of the best 9-hold sand green courses in the state featuring an undulating layout with both uphill and downhill fairways and elevated tee-boxes.
McReynolds Park and Saline River Dam is located on four acres donated to the city in 2021.
The Moffitt Site is located east of Lincoln and marks the spot where pioneers moving west were victims of a clash between Native Americans and settlers or buffalo hunters.
Other interesting sites to visit include the murals throughout the county, found in each of the communities in the county, all were handpainted by locals in Lincoln, Sylvan Grove, Barnard, Beverly, Vesper and Westfall.
The Open-Range Zoo consists of creations by local artist Jim Dickerman. Creatures are created from old farm equipment, car parts, scrap metal, animal bones and feathers, driftwood, limestone, antlers and other items. Creatures will be found perched on the tops of fence posts and billboards, among trees and bushes, on rock outcroppings and at the Grassroots Arts Center in Lincoln.
Moving west from Lincoln, visitors will find the community of Sylvan Grove, whose downtown district was designated on the Register of Historic Kansas Places in 2020. The native limestone buildings are proof of the city’s development since 1887. Several buildings have undergone renovations, including the Farmers Elevator Building, now the home of the Sylvan Senior Center. Refreshments will be served during BKRT.
The Union Pacific Railroad Depot was constructed in 1887 as part of the “Plainville Line.” The building has been extensively renovated and features a waiting room, agent’s office and freight room. The depot is now a museum displaying railroad memorabilia and antique farm equipment. The building is open to visitors Thursday 5pm-7pm, Friday 12 pm-7 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm.
The South Fork Spillman Creek Bridge boasts a double-arched bridge built in 1908 of native limestone. The small park and gazebo are maintained by the Sylvan Historical Society.
Take the Scenic Drive from Sylvan Grove to the Post Rock Scenic Byway where visitors will find a sampling of the county’s limestone structures, including a oneroom schoolhouse, a fourarch bridge and a homestead house.
The City of Lucas has often been referred to as the Santa Fe (NM) of the Plains. The artistry and work of the people of Lucas will amaze anyone traveling through.
Of the many artistic offerings are Barbara McCreery’s “One Window Gallery” where she creates stunning dioramas and story boxes from found objects and sequins. A public toilet called Bowl Plaza is not only useful but uniquely beautiful. Mosaics of colorful times and glass, toy cars, dominoes, badges, wind corks and costume jewelry are worked into the walls. The Czech Heritage Mural covers the wall south of Brant’s Meat Market and created by local artist Erika Nelson illustrating the early uses of native greenhorn limestone by Czech immigrants to this area.
The Da Da Museum Art Gallery is the home of Alan Vopat’s artwork, using alphabet letters to form faces, bodies, objects and more. His work is also located at Switchgrass Studio. Another studio, the Dew Dat Den was originally an art deco service station in the 1930’s is now the studio of local artist Rob Lindsay.
Other art studios and galleries include Faces in the Stone – limestone fence posts carved with faces; Florence Deebie’s Sculpture Rock Garden and the Deebie House – Mri Pilar’s Garden of Isis; Fork Art Park where a series of outdoor fork sculptures created by Pilar create a favorite photo op; Fox Still Sculptures is Raymond Fox Still’s outdoor Styrofoam sculpture are being restored and placed throughout town. S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden is a must-see when in Lucas. Dinsmoor built his 11-room limestone and concrete log cabin home and Garden of Eden sculptures between 1907 and 1919 using 113 tons of cement and tons of limestone. The sculptures are his interpretations of the Bible, Populist politics and modern civilization. Dinsmoor himself is still on the grounds, in a handmade glass-topped concrete coffin inside the limestone mausoleum.
Also important to see are the Grassroots Art Center; Limestone Jail; Lucas City and newspaper history display; Lucas City Par;, Lucas Public Library; M.T. Liggett Metal Sculpture; Main Street Pole Art; Miller’s Park; Old Blue Studio and Proving Ground; a literary-themed outdoor mural; the Post Rock Scenic Byway that takes motorists from Lucas to Wilson; Standing Dog Studio and Gallery; Wilson Lake and State Park; the World’s Largest Souvenir Travel Plate and the World’s Largest Things Roadside Sideshow Expo.
Many locals have not visited these sites lined out by Marcy Penner of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, so it is understood that you don’t have to be from out of town to enjoy these attractions. Details can be found at bigkansasroadtrip. com.
Let the road trip begin!
