Landmark

This venerable landmark has been around and managed to survive the excesses of western Kansas weather for who knows how many years. It's an old one room schoolhouse located on - guess where - "The Schoolhouse Corner." If one is trying to explain the location of a certain field, household or other significant place, one generally asks "Do you know where the Schoolhouse Corner is at?" Directions from that point fix the location of whatever the subject is. It's actually in the southwest corner of Hodgman County on 202RD and C RD. C Road is also known as the "Boothill Feeder's Road" because it's a shortcut across country to said feedlot - north of Dodge City, KS on a county road.

There used to be a couple of one holers to the north, and I think the building was used for some community meetings and such until the early sixties. And, it's three miles north and three east from my former home. I was driving by here on the way up to the Wright place, which is eight miles north and a half east of this corner. So, living there more than doubled the distance to Cimarron for me.

This area is full of old cemeteries, but not much is left of the ghost towns. I've mentioned them before, and there are remnants of certain ones, but in my area, not so much. For instance, the Wright place is near the Bundyville area - but just try and find information about that. St. Michael's Cemetery located due east of Schoolhouse Corner is listed as being in "South Roscoe, KS," which is now a township in Hodgman County.

Oddly enough, after going on about local sustainability yesterday, it is interesting to note that a hundred years ago or so, the area did support a lot more families and communities. Even up until my childhood - there were   four families within a 1.5 mile radius of the Poor Farm. Now? Just two, and one is the family of a hired man for one of the larger farmers. That includes me not being there anymore, either.

But, that's the result of economy of scale in action long term, and the fact is that our food is far, far cheaper compared to income levels than it was "back in the day." A family cannot afford the labor involved in keeping that kind of lifestyle today, when opportunity costs of those efforts being applied elsewhere are considered.

Even so, tomatoes were grown in a well tended, labor intensive garden, not commercially. Heh.