Metal-Great Bend Gold Butterfly TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 7-May-24 this trackable had survived for 8.0 years but it had been moved by only 9 cachers, for an average drop every 326 days, or 1.1 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

While I have lived in Texas for nearly 50 years, I was born and grew to an adult in Kansas.  When I tell someone of my origins, they almost always respond in one of two ways:  “I have been there but I don’t remember much about it” or “that 400 mile drive across the state on Interstate 70 is really boring.”  There is more to the state than that.  The wheat grown there feeds the world, and the people are nice, but I will focus on the sometimes lawless history of the state.

Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, but it was far from civilized.  From 1850 until 1900 the region was a frontier, and at the center of important events in US history:  there was the westward movement of pioneers from Europe and the eastern US and the subsequent conflicts with Native Americans; the Santa Fe Trail crossed the state and the Pony Express and the Oregon Trail passed through a corner; there was a border war because Kansas was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement, whereas neighboring Missouri was a slave state; and finally the several new railroads were extending westward into hostile territory and furthermore some of the railheads were the destinations of cattle drives from Texas.  Each trackable in this series of metal travel bugs is named for towns with interesting histories (at least to me), some of which have connections to my youth.

The town is named for its location on the big, southeasterly bend of the Arkansas River (pronounced R-KANSAS River in Kansas).  At Great Bend, the Santa Fe Trail entered from the east, and started following the river drainage to the west.  Fort Zarah was established there to protect travelers.

We moved to Great Bend from Lyons in about 1946.  My dad was a mechanic for the Hudson dealer.  You have to be over 70 or under 12 (from the movie Cars) to have heard of those automobiles.  I once got a ride in one of their convertible models.

My sisters and I had bicycles, mine was a red Schwinn, theirs were blue.  I used mine for a newspaper route for the Great Bend Tribune.  When not on the route, I rode the bike everywhere, as fast as I could go.  Consequently, I was in pretty good shape.  My maternal grandfather worked for Texaco and the annual company picnic was held in the city park.  My sisters and I would clean up on the kid running events every year.  The winners received silver dollars, some of which I still have.