Just to the west of this location about one mile was a town called Terra Cotta, Kansas. In 1867 a man named Thomas Mullen moved to Kansas from Illinois and purchased a quarter section of land about 6 miles SW of Brookville, Kansas . Mullen established a business shipping clay and sand from his property. Running diagnonally through his quarter section , the location of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. and was called Muellens Siding. About 15 - 20 people lived at this small village and called it Rock Springs. In 1878 , Tom Mullen, along with a man named S. M. Simpson from, Lawrence, Kansas, laid out a townsite and when it gained a post office on July 2, 1878, it was called Terra Cotta, meaning colored earth. . This town eventually boomed into a bustling communtiy with grocery stores, blacksmith shop, Saloons, restaurants, large hotel, dwellings, brothels and very large stock yards. But Terra Cotta's life fell would fall short in 1887, a prairie fire swept and burned down the hotel. The following year a recession hit and several families and businesses left. The elevator was moved to Shady Bend in Lincoln County some 30 miles to the north. Mr. Bliss moved his blacksmith shop to Venango, Kansas about 9 miles south of Terra Cotta. Mr. Fletcher moved his grocery store to another town. Though Terra Cotta showed much promise the town was short lived, and today nothing left of the old townsite except the railroad track. The 1900 Terra Cotta depot now stands at the Hodgden House Museum in Ellsworth, Kansas.
Enjoy the beautiful scenery view in this area. As I was establishing the cache at this location, 2 buzzards were watching me on top of a bluff very close as though I was invading there terrritory.
Congratulations to Ma&PaD for FTF!!!