We are back on the road . . . . . Winter 2018 - 2019

Happy New Year to all !!!

We are back on the road this winter and thought it was time to share some of the sights we have seen.

We decided to leave our RV park home base in Marathon, Florida in the middle of October this year and start heading in a westerly direction just as the "Snowbirds" started flocking to the Florida Keys.

Our goal for this year's trip was to stay off of the interstate highways as much as possible and to visit small, out of the way towns, that have been largely bypassed and forgotten since everyone started sticking to the freeways.

As always, we relied heavily on our "Roadside America" smartphone App to help us find quirky things along the way.

As we were traveling across the very southern edge of Kansas, we happened across a very small town, Greensburg, Kansas.

 This town had an odd look to it as well as a recommendation for a Roadside America attraction.

The odd part about this town was that it didn't look anything like the other towns we had been seeing while driving on this very old rural road in Kansas.

This town looked brand new.  EVERYTHING looked brand new.

We found a small RV park and set up for the night and then went to explore the town and visit "The Big Well".

We couldn't help but ask the same thing you just did. . . . What is The Big Well?

The Big Well is now a museum that houses the world's largest hand dug well.

The well was dug to provide the municipal water supply for Greensburg in 1887 and served that purpose until 1932.

The local workers that dug the well started work at sun-up and were paid fifty cents to a dollar every day at sun-down.  The crews consisted of 12-15 farmers, cowboys and transients using shovels, picks, half barrels, pulleys and ropes to remove the soil.

Stone for the well casing was brought in from a quarry 12 miles away on wagons and the dirt removed from the well was hauled away in the same wagons.  The dirt was scattered along the quarry road to raise low spots and level the old cattle trail.

As the shaft was dug, stones were installed to line it.  When completed, the well was 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter.

In 1972, the U.S. government designated The Big Well as a National Museum.

There is a spiral stairway that descends to about 30 feet above the bottom of the well and, of course, we went to the bottom.

It would have been a lot of work to dig this hole!

We found out why the Big Well was also a museum and why the town was so nice and new.

On May 4, 2007, 95% of the town was destroyed by an EF5 tornado, including the Big Well museum building.  The well was not damaged but everything else was gone.

This was a water tower that was next to the museum.

This was the museum

Greensburg, Kansas before the tornado

After

The whole town was rebuilt and the museum wasn't rebuilt and opened until 2012.

The museum was fascinating because of all of the photos and memorabilia regarding the tornado and its damage.

The town was so damaged that even the street signs were gone and you couldn't find your way around.  They had to put up temporary signs so that people could find their way home or to work sites.

This explained why everything was new.  We drove up and down almost every street and noticed that almost every yard had an underground storm shelter in their yard near the front door.

We would hate to be here during tornado season!

After spending the afternoon exploring, we had a quiet evening, and the next day continued on down the road to find our next surprise.

We will write more soon,

Tom & Suzie









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