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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jul 31, 2018 18:22:04 GMT
Sitting out on my big front porch overlooking Main Street here in small town Kansas, with my obligatory American flag flying from a front porch column, it is amazing at how many people wave at you as they drive by - truckers, bikers, an occasional lady. I often get the pointing finger, and I often return it with the ever popular, "back at ya, shooter". Some times I feel like I'm living in a Sinclair Lewis novel.
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TexasRanger
Caneguru
A little here, a little there...
Posts: 2,223 
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Post by TexasRanger on Jul 31, 2018 18:45:05 GMT
Didn't some story in a Truman Capote book take place out in Kansas...? Trying to remember. Think. Think...
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jul 31, 2018 19:32:40 GMT
Didn't some story in a Truman Capote book take place out in Kansas...? Trying to remember. Think. Think... Pratt, KS History - The Saga of Skunk Johnson In the early part of 1874, a man known as "Skunk Johnson," who followed trapping and hunting for a living, selected a spot near the head of the Ninnescah Creek, where he prepared himself a dugout, which became and is still known as Skunk Johnson's cave. It is one of the curiosities or interesting points in the county. The cave is very artistically made. It is cut in the side of one of the bluffs that mark the course of the creek. The entrance is a small hole, but the interior is divided into two compartments--one used for a kitchen and the other for a sleeping apartment. The walls of the cave are a kind of hard clay or soapstone, capable of being chiseled into any form. In the kitchen a very artistic fire-place was made, from which a spiral chimney was cut, terminating in a small orifice at the surface of the hill. Over the fire-place a neat mantel-piece was cut, and in one corner a hole was sunk in which he kept his water-pail. Johnson was a character, and became noted far and near. In 1874, bands of Indians went prowling over the country, and woe betide the white man they met in their path. In one of their expeditions they came across Johnson, who was out on a hunt, and chased him to his cave. There were about twenty of the Indians, but Johnson's aim was sure and his rifle deadly, and every savage that came within its range was sure to bite the dust. After he had killed several of them, they were extremely cautious about getting in front of the entrance to the cave. They tried to smoke him out from above, but the smoke escaped through the entrance, and when they tried to smoke him out at the entrance, he would ascend the spiral chimney and open the orifice above. For fifteen days he was thus besieged, until finally the Indians, finding themselves outwitted, and after losing several of their number, moved away. While thus besieged, it so happened that Johnson had a number of skunks in his cave which he was compelled to eat, and from this he derived the name of "Skunk Johnson." Buffalo becoming scarce, Johnson abandoned his cave and moved West, but it served a grand and noble purpose, for it became a retreat for freighters who accidentally got caught in a storm or benighted. "Skunk Johnson's" cave became as well known to ranchmen and freighters in Southwestern Kansas as Niagara Falls are to tourists, and as many as fifteen men have been known to find shelter in it for three days at a time during a storm. The cave is a curiosity in itself, and a person can interest himself considerably by reading the inscriptions on the walls. kancoll.org/books/cutler/pratt/pratt-co-p1.html |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 20:39:39 GMT
Sounds a nice friendly place.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 21:21:18 GMT
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jul 31, 2018 22:24:53 GMT
Sounds a nice friendly place. awwww, shucks! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 8:58:26 GMT
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Post by Rainbow Sex on Oct 14, 2018 16:37:46 GMT
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