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Welcome to Park! I have been coming to Park since the early 1990's to visit friends who live just outside of town in the farming area. Although the town is smaller than it once was, I still enjoy visiting and enjoying the rich history of such an "out of the way" place that many people just drive by and would otherwise miss. An easy P&G, "log only" BYOP. Please be respectful of the local residents who may be Muggles. Kindly replace where you found it.
To make your visit more enjoyable, you may wish to read the following historical summary taken from "The Place Called 'Buffalo Park,' 100th Anniversary":
The plains of Western Kansas were the habitat of the wandering buffalo and favorite hunting grounds of various Native American Indian tribes. The buffalo eventually became thinned out and Kansas Indians relinquished their lands in 1825.
The Buffalo Town Company was the first townsite company organized in Gove County, Kansas, and was incorporated on February 2, 1878 which embraced 160 acres. It was the first townsite plated in the county. Within a year after its founding Buffalo became known as Buffalo Park. Since then it has been known as Park.
The Railroad (Kansas Division of the Union Pacific) was built through Park around 1866. No one really lived in the newly established Gove County except buffalo hunters and railroad employees. Weston's Railway Guide said of Buffalo Park in 1872: "There is a telegraph office, soldier's quarters, turf house and (railroad) tank here." By 1880, Buffalo Park had 250 inhabitants (as listed in the Kansas Gazeteer).
Charles H. Sternberg, the noted fossil hunter and a native New Yorker made his first trip to Park when he was 19 years old in 1876. He said in his book "the Life of a Fossil Hunter," "As soon as the frost was out of the ground, having secured a team of ponies and a boy to drive them, I left Manhattan and drove out to Buffalo Park, where one of my brothers was the agent. The only house besides the small station building was that occupied by section men.... Here at Buffalo I made my headquarters for many years. A great windmill and a well of pure water, a hundred and twenty feet deep, made it a Mecca for us fossil hunters after two seeks of strong alkali water. At the well Professor Mudge's party and my own used to meet in peace after our fierce rivalry in the field as collectors for our respective paleontologists, Marsh and Cope. When we left Buffalo station, we left civilization behind us. They made their own wagan trails of which were used afterwards by settlers until the section lines were constructed." (Some of Sternberg's discoveries can be found at the Sternberg museum in Hays Kansas, about an hour east on I-70).
The first Church organized in Gove County was at Buffalo Park in 1879 by a Congregationalist missionary. A Presbyterian Minister had services in 1881 to 1898. A Catholic mission was also started by the Capuchin Order. In the year 1894, Peter Schamber, born in Herzog, a German colony on the Volga, Russia, was appointed by the Kansas Division Superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad to work in Buffalo Park as foreman for that section of track. He worked with Father Paul Werr and helped organize the few Catholic residents to found Sacred Heart parish. Mr. Ellithorpe, a non-Catholic, donated 15 acres of land to the Catholic community for the construction of their Church and cemetery along with a generous $400 donation. The first Catholic church, a small wooden frame church, was built for a cost of $800 (both Catholic and Non-Catholic contributed to its construction). The current newer structure was built in 1921 and can be seen from great distances.
At one time, Park had their own Elementary and High Schools, bank, hardware and general store. The current abandoned High School, which was built and dedicated on January 8, 1951, sits on the property previously occupied by the first school in Gove County started in 1878. On July 22, 1961, one of the largest Centennial celebrations of the State of Kansas was held at Park, with an estimated 8,000 visitors.
3/4 of the current residents of Park are descendants of the town and surrounding area.
Additional Hints
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