Weird and wonderful in Kansas

We decided to stop off and see the Barbed Wire Museum on a whim. Might be a bit naff, but that's okay. Much to our surprise though, this museum was actually quite interesting. We ended up spending over an hour wandering around looking at all of the different displays.



As for that tangle up above. It's a crow's nest.

Lucas, Kansas is a small non-descript town in the middle of Kansas. No one would have ever heard of it if not for a man by the name of Samuel P. Dinsmoor. The house is made of limestone cut to look like logs; a sculpture garden surrounds it. Dinsmoor opened his home as a tourist attraction in 1908. He continued to build his concrete and stone monument to biblical man as well as making social statements until his death in 1933. And beyond. You can view his intombed body in a specially built mausoleum in one corner of the garden.

Welcome to the Garden of Eden, where you are greeted by Adam and Eve, holding an outstretched apple.

We actually spent so much time driving we wondered if we had somehow missed this place. There's no building, no gift shop, no well, nothing. Then, suddenly, you find yourself crossing over a cattle guard, and you're in the middle of a field.

And this is in front of you.

This is another small town that would be unheard of except for one man, Frank Stoeber, and his desire to save a bit of twine. Within 4 years, it weighed 5,000 pounds.

The town has owned the ball of twine since 1961 and has been adding to it ever since.

Miles before you reach Oakley you will start to see signs along I-70. "See the world's largest prairie dog!" "Six-legged cow! "Two-headed goat!" "Rattlesnakes!"

Finally, you reach the turn off to Oakley in western Kansas. There, right near the interstate, is Prairie Dog Town.

Inside is a small gift shop with the usual tat and such you find in souvenir shops all over the world. Up on the wall is the mounted head of the above mentioned two-headed goat, long gone to meet the big Goat God in the sky. Off to one side is a large boxed container. Inside is a rattlesnake paradise.

Pay your admission fee, and out the back door into an open area contained a large number of animals, most in cages or fenced off but quite a few roaming free. Prairie dog mounds are everywhere, in and out of enclosures. Here and there you can see them popping their heads up to have a look round then disappearing back down again into a hole.

Raccoons having lunch