Metal-Kanopolis Silver Fancy Oval 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 29-Sep-22 this one has survived for 4.7 years and had been moved by 10 cachers, for an average drop every 172 days. 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 in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. 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.

Fort Ellsworth was the first frontier fort established in the Kanopolis area.  It was built in 1864 at the junction of the Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road and the Smoky Hill Trail, near the Smoky Hill River.   Its purpose was to protect construction of the Union Pacific railroad from Native American raids.   In 1866 the name was changed to Fort Harker.

By this time, the fort had grown in importance as a military staging post and supply depot for forts further west, and needed to expand to continue meeting its mission.  As a result, in 1866, the Army ordered the construction of a new fort approximately three-quarters mile east of the current location.  The original Fort Ellsworth was closed in early 1867, and the town of Ellsworth was founded in its place.  This new location featured a "large, well-equipped hospital."  The hospital was surely busy, since about 200 people died in 1867 from cholera around the Fort Harker area.  For the next five years, Fort Harker became one of the most important military stations west of the Missouri River.   It used 700 soldiers and twice as many civilian employees, as well as 400 horses and mules. Additionally, the mail was supplied from Fort Harker to all military posts down the Arkansas River, as well as many posts in Colorado and New Mexico.

Over the coming years, the threat of Native American raids in the region diminished as territory was secured and railroad construction moved west. No longer of geographic significance, Fort Harker was abandoned in 1872

Developers bought the former military reservation and imagined a "Central Metropolis," and a future capitol because of its location in the center of the state.  They were chartered as the Kanopolis Land Company on in 1886, with a capital stock of $500,000.  They laid out land for 150,000 people and shortly after, the town of Kanopolis was founded.  They advertised in newspapers, suggesting the area was destined to be the railroad, commercial, and manufacturing capital of Kansas.  Another ad in 1887 declared it to be the only town in the state with railroads running north, south, east, and west and also claimed to have seven factories, thirteen stores, and a hotel.  It reported the population to be 600 when the town was "scarcely" one year old.  The advertisements became even more extravagant but few of the claims were true.  In short order, editorials appeared suggesting it was all a scam.  Worse yet, Kanopolis lost the referendum to become the county seat to Ellsworth. The last time I was there was probably 50 years ago and there wasn't much to the town.

My history with Kanopolis was simply to drive through the town on Sunday afternoon drives to the new (1948) Kanopolis dam and lake on the Smoky Hill River.  My connection to Fort Harker is the trail between there and Fort Zarah in Great Bend.  The wagon ruts could still be seen in our pasture across the road from our farmhouse.