A day in Morris County, Kansas

[wister6813]

Early on the Sunday before Labor Day I headed west from Kansas City for Morris County, Kansas. Morris County is an unshaded county in the map created by Holoscenes. More on this in a minute.

 

While preparing for my day in the field I noted four discs monumented by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, or commonly known as the KATY. The description mentions a raised center strip on the disk. I knew if I found nothing else, I would have to find one of the KATY disks. After all, a steady diet of C&GS disks is unexciting (yet I keep going out).

 

I found three disks mounted on concrete culverts southwest of Council Grove. The fourth disk is at the bottom of the Council Grove Lake. The disks have raised letters, including M.K.&T. RY. JF0112, 6 MKTRR, is a good example of the disk placed by the Katy Railroad. The railroad was removed in 1957, but the culverts and disks were in good condition.

 

I'm catching up on my Geocaching logs tonight, and I noted that Foxtrot_xray is on a cross-county trip, and he also was in Council Grove recently. I suspect the unshaded county drew him to Morris County as well. We both photographed the water tank, 6 days apart.

 

Bob

 

[TillaMurphs]

wister6813,

 

Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing the KATY disk.

 

It is great that the disks have survived the removal of the railroad.

 

And yeah – that Foxtrot does seem to get around.

 

Thanks.

[foxtrot_xray]

I'm catching up on my Geocaching logs tonight, and I noted that Foxtrot_xray is on a cross-county trip, and he also was in Council Grove recently. I suspect the unshaded county drew him to Morris County as well. We both photographed the water tank, 6 days apart.

Hey, cool! Actually, I wasn't really paying attention to shaded counties - and am surprised that that one wasn't colored in! Was just heading back east from Colorado, and decided to take the 'fun' route - US50/US56. Got a whole string of counties that I didn't have colored in (for myself), and that was one of 'em.

 

My lukiest find was on a missle site in Rice County (I think..) .. Quite surprised to find myself there. D'oh.

 

That's a neat disk - I haven't seen any in that style over here on the east side of the country..

Edited September 11, 2012 by foxtrot_xray

[wister6813]

I noted you were at one of the Atlas F sites surrounding the former Schilling AFB. I've been near some of the Atlas E sites near the former Forbes AFB, but they all seem to be fenced and posted. My understanding is most of the facilities, and some equipment, associated with the Atlas sites were abandoned in place.

 

The survey crews working around Forbes seemed to have a sense of humor. Some of the triangulation stations related to the missile silos have names like STING, SHINE, GLOW, BLAST, MELT, and DUCK. I was at the azimuth mark for STING during my recent trip to Council Grove.

[foxtrot_xray]

I noted you were at one of the Atlas F sites surrounding the former Schilling AFB. I've been near some of the Atlas E sites near the former Forbes AFB, but they all seem to be fenced and posted. My understanding is most of the facilities, and some equipment, associated with the Atlas sites were abandoned in place.

 

The survey crews working around Forbes seemed to have a sense of humor. Some of the triangulation stations related to the missile silos have names like STING, SHINE, GLOW, BLAST, MELT, and DUCK. I was at the azimuth mark for STING during my recent trip to Council Grove.

Yup! I looked up 'STING', and saw it hear US56, decided to drive up and find it - that place was locked down tight. Later on down the road, I saw 'GLOBE', and thought to try that one. The road was heavily disused, but no 'No Trespassing' signs, and the gate was torn down. Once I drove past the gate, I saw the unique three-lamp post near the gate, and figured this was the same type of place as was at 'STING'. (I didn't realize WHAT it was until we got home later that weekend.) Some recent work was done there, however, as there was new grading done - within the last 5 years, at least - which is why 'GLOBE' wasn't found.