Goodbye, Oklahoma. Hello, Kansas.
Where are we in Kansas, you may ask? The answer is easy. Somewhere between here and there at a KOA 200 yards from I-70. The exact location is WaKeeney, a small town. If you count the town’s old sorehead, it would be 1,818 according to the census of 2010. Oddly, there are two motels here in addition to the KOA. If this were Kentucky town of that size the motels would be in the next town.
The KOA, like most campgrounds in Kansas, is on a the flat prairie with very few trees. The few trees that are here are scarcely 30 feet tall. Those are the tall ones. To have taller trees they must be in a cluster of several trees since one helps the other with wind resistance.
Entrance and office at WaKeeney KOA
We took I-35 north from OKC through Wichita, Kansas. The interstate goes about a mile east of the downtown area where the river runs through town. Byron commented that Wichita has to be the grain shipping capital of the midwest. There were dozens of granaries with several dozen of silos. Where he came from, one grain elevator with eight silos was big. Continuing on through Wichita we turned westward on I-70 at Salina to continue our gradual assent toward Colorado.
Oklahoma has a lot of cattle farmers (out here, they are ranchers). And, there are a lot of casinos. Several working oil wells can also be spotted. Once across the Kansas border corn and wheat fields were seen. Casinos became more rare and pumping wells became more noticeable. Toward the middle of Kansas one sees more wide-open prairie with grass (well, somewhat wide open). Occasionally a few cattle can be seen. As a friend, who is from Nebraska says, Kansas is a long and lonely state. From what I remember, Nebraska can be, too. On average, it appears that there are six or eight cars per mile of roadway. Towns, like in North Texas, are a few miles apart containing one grain elevator, two gas stations, two churches, and a sheriff’s deputy. Walmart stores are in every other town or so. Other than being flatter than Oklahoma, Kansas is also greener. Oklahoma, however, has 500,000 more residents; which accounts for the lonely feeling when on the road.
A large, concrete-walled drainage channel lies between the northbound
and southbound lanes of the interstate highway in Wichita. These are
common in flatter states to accommodate the typical downpour.
We had a strong wind from our backs as long as we were heading north. Fuel consumption actually improved about 1.2 mpg. However, once we got north of Wichita the wind died a great deal. When we turned west at Salina, the trees were barely moving. However, within 90 minutes a tornado had developed that did some minor damage north and west of the town.
Of all the wide-open space and the abundant amount of wind on these plains, we have noticed only one windmill farm. This, compared with the three places between Indianapolis and Chicago, seems odd. I suppose the challenge is getting the electrical energy from where it can be developed to where it can be used.
A windmill farm along I-70 west of Salina, Kansas.
Curves? Yes. Not all the roads in Kansas are straight. Curves are, however, rather rare and generally subtle. One nice thing is the wide, wide right-of-way along the highway. That is something not found east of the Mississippi River. Depending on the state, we’re more accustomed to trees being 30 feet from the road. Later this summer hay will be bailed in the right-of-way.
Looking west on I-70 in the midst of the great plains of Kansas.
Today we traveled approximately 390 miles. We did make one rest stop and one fuel stop. For us, this is enough to put in on one day. When Martha is working Byron does the driving.
Now, about that history lesson regarding Oklahoma that referred to in an earlier post — most residents know the history of the state. Most of us from farther east aren’t aware of why Oklahoma remained a territory while all the neighboring regions had been admitted to statehood. This little piece of information is for those of us from east of the Mississippi.
As you are aware, Oklahoma was one of the last regions on this continent to be admitted into statehood. Over the process of a few decades, Native Americans were driven from their homeland by the federal government who gave them acreage in what was designated as Indian Territory, the eastern half of present day Oklahoma. This was during the period around the time of the Civil War. In fact, there was an attempt to move many freed slaves westward. This is the reason so many tribes established “nations” by which to rule themselves in their new homeland. To this day the nations still maintain some governance of the American Indian population.
In 1889 Congress opened the western half of the state to settlement after having sectioned it off in the typical fashion; 640 acres per section, one section per square mile, and six square miles forming a township. This land was being made available to white (European) settlers who participated in the land rush. (As a side note, the town of Guthrie was literally built in one afternoon as a result of this action). In this land offer, families could get rural land or town land as a homestead. (See the photo at the Land Run Monument in the previous post).
By the turn of the 20th Century there was clamoring for statehood from the residents. The western half (Oklahoma Territory), was made up predominantly of Republicans, the controlling party that had taken the action to open the territory. The Five Civilized Tribes (those that had adopted English as an official language and had ameliorated into the ways of American culture) formed a union and worked to petition Congress for statehood. Those in Indian Territory were looked upon as leaning toward being Democratic party.
Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider himself, stated he was in favor of bringing the territories formally into the United States. He had met with the American Indian delegation while traveling in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories and told them he was supportive of granting statehood. In fact, he promised to sign a bill into law granting the Indian Territory statehood; the state was to be named “Sequoyah”. With that in mind, the tribes held a convention in Eufaula. They later held a constitutional convention in Muscogee in 1905 and elected delegates to the US Congress to petition for statehood. Had this action been successful, Sequoyah would have been the first state to have a Native American majority population.
The Republican-controlled Congress (and President Roosevelt) gave this action a cool reception once things were formalized and presented in Washington. Roosevelt reversed his position. The request for statehood wasn’t accepted.
Returning from being denied, two of the influential leaders of the Five Civilized Tribes met with leaders from Oklahoma Territory and quickly assembled a structure for joining forces to petition Congress. When all was said and done, a large portion of the constitution drawn up for Sequoyah became the basis for the Oklahoma constitution. When the US Congress was approached again, they voted to admit Oklahoma as one state. That was in 1907.
Now, you may ask, why did Roosevelt reverse his position? The answer lies in the fact that he knew that if the Oklahoma was one state there would be less threat of having three Democrat senators to deal with than one Republican and one Democrat. Sequoyah would probably have voted for two Democrats. The prevalent feeling in Oklahoma Territory was somewhat split with there being a leaning toward the Republican Party.
So much for history and politics. It seems that political tricks are as certain as death and taxes.
Tomorrow we head toward Denver. We’ll have 120 fewer miles to travel since we’ll be staying overnight in Strasburg, Colorado.
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