|
|
Download & Print
October 6, 2022
Frontier Tales
Cattle Towns at the End of the Trail
Rebecca Huffstutler Norton
Frontier Times Museum Director
A few years back, I had the good fortune of traveling to Kansas to visit a few cattle towns that arose at the end of the great cattle trails of the nineteenth century. I arrived not on horseback like the trail drivers of yore, but rather by automobile so my journey took just 13 hours rather than customary three months - quicker perhaps, but not as exciting. The legendary cattle towns are now modern urban settlements with the usual chain restaurants and Walmarts, but vestiges of their past still exist.
My first destination was Ellinwood, a charming town where the stockyards still exist just across the railroad tracks. My dear friends, Rick and Roger, left San Antonio to purchase an antique store on the corner of Main and the highway that now traverses through the town center. A condition of their purchase was they were to maintain the underground downtown area that exists beneath their store and to continue to give public tours, an attraction that I had to see with my own eyes. The building itself was quite lovely, a two-story Victorian with their shop on the first floor and their art-filled apartment on the second. My companion chose the room overlooking the street, leaving me with an interior room with no view. This proved to be beneficial because with nightfall, the winds would shift and carry the odors of the stockyards through any open window on that side of the building. Nevertheless, we were there to explore what laid beneath Ellinwood.
Through a trap door, we ventured down a flight of stairs to discover what had been preserved for over a century. Here was a blacksmith shop, a saddle shop, a barbershop, a saloon, and a bathhouse that still contained a single bed behind a curtain for a lady-of-the-evening to service the visiting cowboys. The hidden town reached beyond the shop and traveled well under Main Street and under the hotel on the next corner. This was not to be the only underground town, but it was the best preserved in Kansas. We later traveled to Ellsworth where their underground area was smaller but housed a delightful restaurant and bar.
Why would a town go to such trouble to create a separate underground town? As one can imagine, the young cowboys who arrived would be excited to be at the end of their journey with a pocket full of cash. They were ready to down a few shots of whisky, grab a saloon girl to shake off the trail’s loneliness, and paint the town red. Towns became rowdy and, in many cases, violent. City leaders were concerned about the disturbances and, as a colleague of mine has speculated, the town’s menfolk may have had concerns their gentle womenfolk would come into contact with these virile, handsome young men who epitomize the ideal of manhood with their swagger, clinking spurs and leather chaps. What better way to preserve a town’s serenity and to protect a woman’s virtue than to hide the temptation.
Before the 1970s and 80s, there were more underground towns in existence but with a desire for urban renewal, many city officials began filling in these reminders of the state’s rougher past. Believing the underground should be preserved, a prominent doyenne of the city successfully fought to preserve Ellinwood’s link to the past. Next month, we’ll explore another cattle town - above ground.
My first destination was Ellinwood, a charming town where the stockyards still exist just across the railroad tracks. My dear friends, Rick and Roger, left San Antonio to purchase an antique store on the corner of Main and the highway that now traverses through the town center. A condition of their purchase was they were to maintain the underground downtown area that exists beneath their store and to continue to give public tours, an attraction that I had to see with my own eyes. The building itself was quite lovely, a two-story Victorian with their shop on the first floor and their art-filled apartment on the second. My companion chose the room overlooking the street, leaving me with an interior room with no view. This proved to be beneficial because with nightfall, the winds would shift and carry the odors of the stockyards through any open window on that side of the building. Nevertheless, we were there to explore what laid beneath Ellinwood.
Through a trap door, we ventured down a flight of stairs to discover what had been preserved for over a century. Here was a blacksmith shop, a saddle shop, a barbershop, a saloon, and a bathhouse that still contained a single bed behind a curtain for a lady-of-the-evening to service the visiting cowboys. The hidden town reached beyond the shop and traveled well under Main Street and under the hotel on the next corner. This was not to be the only underground town, but it was the best preserved in Kansas. We later traveled to Ellsworth where their underground area was smaller but housed a delightful restaurant and bar.
Why would a town go to such trouble to create a separate underground town? As one can imagine, the young cowboys who arrived would be excited to be at the end of their journey with a pocket full of cash. They were ready to down a few shots of whisky, grab a saloon girl to shake off the trail’s loneliness, and paint the town red. Towns became rowdy and, in many cases, violent. City leaders were concerned about the disturbances and, as a colleague of mine has speculated, the town’s menfolk may have had concerns their gentle womenfolk would come into contact with these virile, handsome young men who epitomize the ideal of manhood with their swagger, clinking spurs and leather chaps. What better way to preserve a town’s serenity and to protect a woman’s virtue than to hide the temptation.
Before the 1970s and 80s, there were more underground towns in existence but with a desire for urban renewal, many city officials began filling in these reminders of the state’s rougher past. Believing the underground should be preserved, a prominent doyenne of the city successfully fought to preserve Ellinwood’s link to the past. Next month, we’ll explore another cattle town - above ground.