Here’s something you might not know about Kansas: the people there are fully aware of the reputation of their state as a boring place to visit. What’s more, they go to great lengths to do something about it, and have for about a hundred years.
Kansans will take anything historic, notable or just down-right weird and build it up into a tourist attraction. Whatever it takes in order to get you to stop your car and spend some money as you speed across the prairie. In this post I’ll touch on three such efforts, varying in age, funding and audience appeal. All very different, but all 100% Kansas shtick.
Evel Knievel Museum, Topeka
Robert Craig Knievel Jr. was a native son of Montana who retired in Florida. He never lived in Kansas, but that didn’t stop the owner of the local Harley Davidson dealership from building a museum about him in Topeka. In typical Kansas style, if you’ve collected some stuff you think is neat, why not put a sign up on the road and see if you can get some other folks to pay you to see your stuff?
Evel himself was a reformed petty thief and showman with a knack for guerrilla marketing, cut from the same cloth as PT Barnum and Gene Simmons. I’m sure he would have approved of the Evel Knievel Museum, as long as he was getting his cut. Attached to the motorcycle dealership, the museum showcases a collection of Knievel’s original leathers and other paraphernalia, including examples of his stunt bikes. Many are reproductions or restorations since these motorcycles were frequently wrecked.
There are displays featuring some of the more dramatic jumps including an injury toteboard pointing out which bones he broke at each. Highlights of the museum include one of the rockets used for the infamous Snake River jump attempt and the fully customized Mack truck that served as Knievel’s home and transport while touring.
Worlds Largest Ball of Twine, Cawker City
You wouldn’t think there could be anything controversial about a ball of twine, but apparently the title is hotly contested. Valley View Texas holds the title for the largest ball of yarn. A Barber in Missouri claimed the largest ball of human hair and Darwin, Minnesota claims to have the largest ball of twine rolled by one man. But if you want to see the undeniable biggest ball of twine the world has ever known, you have to visit the metropolis of Cawker City.
The town has embraced the spotlight that sets it apart from a hundred other small hamlets along US 24, and thrown in some additional home-spun eye candy in hopes of getting tourists to extend their stop beyond the few minutes required to snap a selfie with a ginormous pile of baling string. I visited in October, so the ball was decked out with appropriate accessories.
Garden of Eden. Lucas
Last but far from least in our examples of Kansas roadside attractions we have the Garden of Eden. Back around the turn of the twentieth century, an eccentric named S.P. Dinsmore began transforming his property in the tiny town of Lucas Kansas into a tourist attraction on the do-it-yourself plan. Beginning with Bible themes and later transitioning into political motifs, Dinsmore created a bizarre sculpture garden around his house with native limestone, concrete and chicken wire.
With a few exotic animals in cages out back, he lured the travelers of the 1900s to listen to his speeches, look at his mausoleum and troupe through his stone house where he lived with his second wife in the basement. His first wife is in the backyard tomb – the townsfolk made him bury her in the town cemetery, but he dug her up and moved her later in the dark of night.
Everything about Dinsmore is strange, but despite the fact that he vexed his neighbors when he was alive, his creation put Lucas on the map. Today the town has finally embraced Dinsmore’s legacy and even expanded upon it, building an outsider art museum a few blocks away that features a restroom shaped like a giant toilet.
This is just a taste of the splendors that await you in Kansas if you will only leave the freeway for a bit, stop and walk around. Some of the attractions are funny, some sobering and some just plain weird, but you’ll likely find all of them staffed by friendly folks who aim to please and are very glad you stopped by. Give Kansas another chance. I did, and I was pleasantly surprised.