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Bazaar

5 Comments on Bazaar

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Welcome to Bazaar, a small, unincorporated community in Chase County. Bazarre is located just a short ways east of K-177, between Matfield Green (to the south) and Cottonwood Falls (to the North.)

Most people who travel the Kansas Turnpike between Emporia and Cassoday have passed the exit labeled “Bazaar Cattle Pens.” And, that exit gets you only to … cattle pens, which is handy if you’re a truck driver assigned to picking up cattle there.

So, Bazaar is like Matfield Green, which also has a presence on the Kansas Turnpike in name only.

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Downtown Bazaar.

According to “1001 Kansas Place Names” by Sondra Van Meter McCoy and Jan Hults, “Several families from Illinois settled Bazaar Township in 1857. Mary Walton Leonard, wife of the first postmaster, is said to have suggested the name Bazaar, meaning ‘market place,’ although for almost two years, the name Mary was used in her honor. The small trading center is located in the Flint Hills cattle range country.”

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Near the base of this overhanging tree, I found a cracked orange Easter egg shell, presumably from the day before.

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I like the shape of the sign sort of mimics the shape of the window.

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Across the grass parking lot from the church is this former home, lost in the tangle of time.

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Houses are spread out in town.

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Leaving Bazaar.

5 Comments

  3. The sign on the cemetery is what made me look further back in your posts. I knew the name seemed familiar. Of course I have seen the sign for the cattle pens many times. We drove past it just last weekend on the way home from the state gymnastics meet in Lenexa. I asked the friend we’d rode with the same question I always ask my husband, “Do the pens belong to one ranch or do all the ranches in the area use them?” I don’t know why I feel the need to know this, LOL. My friend didn’t know the answer either. It was at that moment that it finally occurred to me that the sign was for the semi drivers who would be picking up cattle, probably to haul them to a feed lot like the one a mile down from my house. I’m a little slow sometimes! I’m glad to know there is a town named Bazaar and that they aren’t some crazy, bizarre cattle pens whose sign has just been misspelled.

  4. I have wondered the VERY same thing! Thanks for clearing that up. “I don’t know why I feel the need to know this, LOL.” I’m always wondering (must be the ADD/ADHD kicking in) WHO would live in a neon violet painted house? WHY are they doing that? etc…. it’s a terrible curse.

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