August 17, 2005
"_Slowly, the covered wagons came carrying these determined people with their dreams of becoming 'independent land owners'. The absence of human landmarks neither depressed nor disheartened, but instead they found something frank and joyous in the open-faced country._" - Helen C. Brown ![][1]The Morton county seat, [Elkhart][2] was nearly named Kanokla at its founding in 1913. But E.H. Fisher, a native of Elkhart, Indiana and a surveyor for the Santa Fe railroad, knew folks in high places and his name stuck. Mrs. Farmer was one of the first important businesspeople in town; she started Elkhart's first restaurant, in a tent, and she built the first hotel. A year later, in 1914, forty-four businesses had been established within the town limits.These days, kids roam the streets without fear, more often than not headed to the community swimming pool, or for an ice cream at Big C's, or the candy aisle at the Dollar General. Pedestrians offer greetings to strangers, and passing cars acknowledge each other with a casual wave. The endless horizon and the infinite sky overwhelm human life, and people of the hinterlands seem content, if not privileged, to be reminded each day of their rightful place in the grand scheme of things-a much smaller and cleaner place than the cluttered mansion of Civilization. Of import to most of the citizens of Elkhart are the important things: land, home, family, community, faith and the weather. The prairie sees to that. Fads, fashions, affectations: those are just things on TV and the internet, things in the big city, or on the shelves in cheap, homogenized forms at the WalMart in Guymon, Oklahoma, forty-five minutes away.![][3]The Treasures of Elkhart(Population 2161)Cimarron National Grasslands Elkhart has been in the news a couple of times this year: again as the starting point for Bike Across Kansas, and most recently, for their celebrity woodpecker. Excited ornithologists flocked to Elkhart last month. A three-toed Canada woodpecker, well out of its range, spent nearly a week near the River Park campground north of town, and it made national news. Apparently, the bird enjoyed all the attention, posing professionally for a horde of avirazzi, and approaching within six feet of several blessed birders. That the [woodpecker's][4] visit coincided with the annual Grasslands Heritage Festival was so much the sweeter. According to the festival's [website][5] "The purpose and goal of the Grasslands Heritage Festival is to support the Morton County Historical Society's efforts to increase cultural awareness and tourism in southwest Kansas". ![][6]Elkhart lies in the boundary zone between Eastern and Western bird species, and the [Cimarron National Grasslands][7] is a paradise for birders: turkey vultures slouching near water tanks; angular, peeping Mississippi kites; prairie chickens booming in the tussocks; flashing meadowlarks and their wistful songs. During the spring and autumn migrations, Elkhart's two motels are flush with birdwatchers.Botanists also make regular pilgrimages to the grasslands. Spring wildflower displays are astonishing in their profusion of blossoms and species. The cheerful, red and yellow Gaillardia lives up to its common name of blanket flower-individual colonies cover acres of grasslands. Thirty three miles of the Santa Fe Trail run through the Cimarron National Grasslands; Morton County contains more miles of the Trail than any other county in Kansas.Olympic Champions Elkhart is the smallest city in the nation to produce two Olympic medalists, runners [Thane Baker][8] and [Glenn Cunningham][9]. Morton County Museum This gem of a homespun museum, perennially lauded by the Kansas State Historical Society, has received accolades from the Smithsonian. The inspired curators of the [Morton County Museum][10] preserve an authentic sod house, a tepee, farm implements, a caboose, a one room schoolhouse, appliances (the first TV in the county), love letters, medical equipment-a comprehensive and fascinating [collection][11] of artifacts symbolizing life ongoing in the Great American Desert.8 Mile Corner Stand in three states at the same time. Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado meet at a point 8 miles west of Elkhart on State Line Road. A windmill marks the spot.![][12]The Dusters Elkhart is home to the NCAA-sanctioned [Dusters][13] making Morton the smallest county in the nation to sponsor a semi-pro baseball team. Small town baseball makes America great. Health Care Feeling poorly? Head to Elkhart. Morton is one of the few counties in southwest Kansas to staff full-time paramedics. Elkhart hosts a hospital specializing in surgery, internal medicine and radiology. A stable and generally prosperous tax base allows for near state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, and a small population allows for superior standards of care. If they can't fix you, they'll airlift you to Amarillo. ![][14]Richfield CemeteryIf you die in Elkhart, there's somewhere you have to go. Southwest Kansas is a great place to be a conifer: spruce, thuja, chamaecyparis-all thrive. At least ten years ago, someone in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Richfield (population 53), realized the potential of a particular conifer, the cedar, in a big way. At Richfield cemetery, row after row of carefully clipped cedars run across a manicured patch of green in the [prairie][15], more than a hundred trees, each marking a burial plot (plenty of vacancies). The worms turn, the wind blows, bunnies hop and the meadowlarks sing. Richfield cemetery is a bona-fide horticultural treasure: a dramatic triumph of pragmatic design, a place obviously sacred to its stewards. ![][16]The Downtown Restaurant The stuffed tomato wouldn't be at all out of place on the menu of the Tea Room at Neiman-Marcus.Dee and Forrest Lusk spent eight years in the restaurants and supper clubs of Branson, Missouri-all because Forrest felt a calling ([click here now][17]). About ten years ago, the Lusks returned to Elkhart with, among other good things, a recipe for chicken salad. They put their Branson years to good use and bought the Downtown Restaurant on Morton Avenue (Main Street). That chicken salad (with celery, nuts and a light binding of mayonnaise, packed into a hollowed whole tomato), is now a highlight on the Downtown's menu-and it's very good, attractively garnished with grapes, strawberries, watermelon, cucumbers, carrots, scallions and a basket of packaged crackers. In peak tomato season, this dish is undoubtedly a pure hit of nostalgia. The menu is a meal's worth of reading, a four-page foldout, including the History of the Tip (in the Downtown's version, an acronym for To Insure Promptness; originating in Glasgow, Scotland), a salutation from the Lusks, and ads for local businesses. Given the Elvis connection, I searched the menu for a bacon, banana, peanut butter and mayo hoagie, without success. Surely Seinfeld would have ordered one. Jerry Seinfeld dropped into the Downtown on a cross-country road trip a few years back. Within ten minutes of Seinfeld's spotting, a large crowd gathered at the restaurant-Seinfeld signed autographs for nearly an hour. "He was very polite," the cashier assured us, "but he doesn't really look the same as on TV". Beef is king on the Downtown menu: there's the Hot Hamburger (a regional favorite, open-faced, with brown gravy and mashed potatoes) and the T. Rex Cheeseburger (huge). There are hefty T-bones and thick strip steaks, and BBQ Brisket and Prime Rib (Monster cut, 12 ounces, $16.95; Sissy cut, 8 ounces, $13.95, served with Horsy Sauce, salad bar, potato and Dee's homemade bread). Mama's Pot Roast, an all-day rib-sticker with fixings, sells for $6.95. Beef, Mexican-style, is best-represented by the Sancho, a burrito big as a piglet, drowned in a torrent of melted Jack and Cheddar cheeses (smothering, drowning, encasing-the cooks of southwestern Kansas are masters of these unheralded culinary techniques).Side dishes are standouts: when was the last time you came across a menu offering a side of okra? Or French-fried sweet potatoes, or deep-fried cauliflower and summer squash? The Downtown represents the bird with fried chicken, fried chicken livers and hot wings. There's a long ongoing volley in Elkhart foodie circles: who makes the better fried chicken, Downtown or Jim-n-I's? If a chicken rivalry exists between the two restaurants, it's a loving one: Downtown owner Dee Lusk is Jim Schultz's [Jim-n-I's Restaurant] sister. And it just now occurs to me: both restaurants might be using the same recipe."Hey! How y'all doin' (a-huck), today?"The best Elvis impersonators are concerned less with the replication of Elvis' style and more with the cultivation of His presence. While Forrest Lusk doesn't look much like Elvis, he's got the Elvis in him, and he knows how to work a room.Country restaurants do breakfast right, and good eggs and morning potatoes aren't easy. And, for my money, Elvis as a breakfast condiment is a flourish that sets the Downtown a notch above an already high local restaurant standard. Elvis, and the chicken salad.![][18]Spankie's Saloon While the righteous sop it up at home or at the VFW, the unwashed and unruly belly up at Spankie's Saloon. Hard-lined faces turn towards you as you open the door. The [mullet][19] lives on in glory at Spankie's-spectacular, Dadaistic mullets. And at five thirty on a Friday afternoon (granted, Memorial Day weekend), everyone in the place-except Spankie-was hammered. "What Does a Guy Have to Do to Find a Woman in This Town?" was in heavy rotation on the jukebox. Spankie is a charmer; voluptuous and fresh-faced, and she works her crowd of pickled wildings with the aplomb of a veteran snake-handler. ![][20]On Sundays, Spankie sets up BBQ brisket with the fixings, on the house, for her family of customers. The Friday evening we visited-Steak Dinner night-Spankie was miffed: someone had just stolen one of the briskets from the smoker out back. Spankie had an idea of the perp's identity: "He's cut off," she pronounced, and then winked. If you go, don't miss: Saturday Night Karaoke. [1]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/farmroad.jpg [2]: http://www.ci.elkhart.ks.us/ [3]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/phonebooth.jpg [4]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/jul/16/rare_bird_attracts_watchers/ [5]: http://ghf.mtcoks.com/ [6]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/grassland.jpg [7]: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/cim/ [8]: http://www.kshof.org/inductees/baker.html [9]: http://www.kshof.org/inductees/cunningham.html [10]: http://www.mtcoks.com/museum/ [11]: http://www.mtcoks.com/museum/slides.html [12]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/playball.jpg [13]: http://my.elkhart.com/dusters/ [14]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/cemetary.jpg [15]: http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/forces/ipop/terryevans.htm [16]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/restaurant.jpg [17]: http://etc.lawrence.com/galleries/america247/8278_lores.html [18]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/spankies.jpg [19]: http://www.mulletjunky.com [20]: http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/streetlevel/elevator.jpg
Comments
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davidryan (David Ryan) says...
"posing professionally for a horde of avirazzi"
I heart Tom King.
August 17, 2005 at 4:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BobDarkAvenger (anonymous) says...
These posts make me want to go on a cross kansas roadtrip.
August 17, 2005 at 5:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kitnkat (anonymous) says...
Thank you for the great article from a fomer Elkhartian!!!!
August 17, 2005 at 6:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
edie_ (anonymous) says...
I've been through Elkhart, but now I have reason to stop there. As if Elvis weren't reason enough, there's even FRIED SWEET POTATOES.
August 18, 2005 at 8:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
beatle919 (Marcy McGuffie) says...
Never been. But the Saturday Night Karaoke sounds okay in my book. I really do need to explore more KS....
August 18, 2005 at 9:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
quinn (Patrick Quinn) says...
"avirazzi"...
I ditto David Ryan.
Splendid stuff, Tom.
August 18, 2005 at 9:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rae76 (anonymous) says...
As a current Elkhart resident I would like to say that for the most part your article is correct and highlights some of the greater things of our community.
However, I highly disagree with your comment "Fads, fashions, affectations: those are just things on TV and the internet, things in the big city, or on the shelves in cheap, homogenized forms at the WalMart in Guymon, Oklahoma, forty-five minutes away."
We pay attention to culture and fashion and although we are unable to purchase those items in our own town, does not in any way mean our homes and wardrobes are cheap and come only from Wal-Mart.
We shop at the same places you do for your homes and yourselves, either by going to Amarillo, Wichita, Oklahoma City, or Garden City.
Also, in regards to your section on healthcare, I would like to point out that if our hospital can't fix you, and they do fly you out, 90% of our patients are flown to Wichita not Amarillo. We generally transport you by ground to Amarillo.
Also, if you are flown out by our area Lifeteam based out of Liberal, KS, of the 10 medical team members that work for Lifeteam, 4 of those people live and work in Elkhart.
For the most part you did a pretty good job depicting life here, I would suggest on your next trip you try out the Mexican food at Jim-n-I's and go to the VFW for a few mixed drinks. Also you should play a round of golf and stop in at Country Cluck's if you're looking for something nice to bring home to your family.
~A current Elkhart resident and EMT-B active with Morton County EMS
August 18, 2005 at 10:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
fsluke (anonymous) says...
Thank you Mr King. As a native of a small western Kansas town myself (Deerfield) I appreciate the respect you give to these towns. I recognize many of the places in those pictures and think its great that western Kansas is getting some press that doesn't involve Wyatt Earp or the"In Cold Blood".
August 19, 2005 at 12:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lazz (anonymous) says...
I just had to find a place to post this link, and I thought you'd appreciate it, Mr. King.
A story about a paradise where they love books so much they are now for sale in vending machines, in subway stops and busy street corners ... a town called Paris, France ...
turns out the top sellers are a wok cookbook, a French-English dictionary and Bpoet Charles Baudelaire's 's "Les Fleurs du Mal" - "The Flowers of Evil." Imagine that in George Bush's America, rushing out in the middle of the night to find a vending machine so you can have that copy of Baudelaire that you can't get through the night without? The Thought Police would shoot you dead ...
oh yeah -- all books in these vending machines go for $2.45.
I think I just ponied up $32 for the latest Helprin ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050819/a...
August 19, 2005 at 10:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Redneckgal (anonymous) says...
This is so cool! I have reletives in Elkhart. We used to go thru there and visit them some when I was a kid. It is very nice little town. Beautiful country out there for sure!
August 19, 2005 at 6:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tomking (Tom King) says...
rae76: Points taken, thanks. Great to have a comment from an Elkhart citizen. Wrote about Jim-n-I's on the previous blog; here's the link:http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/street_level/2005/jul/19/greasy2/
How's the weather?
August 19, 2005 at 10:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says...
Loved every word. Makes we want to go there! If you get over to the Lindsborg area, may I recommend staying at the Rosberg House? And if you ever go to Ellis county, take me with you (I am of Vulga German extraction, and thus family/kin to 50% of the population).
August 24, 2005 at 4:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
noway1 (anonymous) says...
Being a former resident of this town first let me say one thing: There are some good people in this town....salt of the earth
Then...
The place is a cesspool, lightyears away from civilization. Guymon or Liberal is where you go for the luxuries of that. (Guymon, OK, or Liberal KS?!!! ) Get real! It's flat, it's windy, it's hot as h*** in the summer and cold as krap in the winter, and it's ugly as h***, the people are "clanish" Don't fall for the little syrupy article, about the only place worse to live than this hole is down the road West....Boise City!
August 28, 2005 at 10:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )