By On the way to Troy Friday, I took a short spin through Atchison, pop. 10,111.
This is the Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge which spans the Missouri River.
Forgetting that I was going to spend the night in St. Joseph, I drove across the bridge, just so I could say I’d been to Missouri that day. It’s always interesting what you find across the border – usually something that is illegal or more expensive in the adjacent state. Immediately across the river in Missouri was a liquor store and a cigarette store. Those items must have lower tax rates in Missouri.
Then, in Doniphan County, along K-20, I found Bendena. Bendena, is an unincorporated town in Doniphan County, but it has a post office – 66008.
And the Bendena Insurance Agency.
And, the St. John’s Lutheran Church.
Bendena. Is it Bendenna? Bendeena? I don’t know how it’s pronounced. At any rate, according to Dan Fitzgerald in Faded Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas, Bendena was established in 1886. The town was first named Albers, for John Albers who owned the land and was the town’s founder. After he sold his land to businesses, townspeople felt a new name was in order.
“They left the matter to the station agent, Evie Morgan, who promptly named the town Bendena as a tribute to his girlfriend,” Fitzgerald writes. “The young lady evidently did not appreciate the honor, for she soon bestowed her affections on another man.”
Long “E”, Cheryl.
Planning has been underway for about two years on replacing the Amelia Earhart Bridge. One plan would build a new bridge farther south on the river. The other is to build a wider bridge in about the same place. This plan would take additional land including my brother’s current house. He hopes this happens as he is building a log cabin in Doniphan to occupy once he and his wife are empty-nesters in about two years.
Will the bridge still be called the Amelia Earhart bridge?
I would guess but I really don’t know. She is too big for tourism there not to keep her name high-profile.