Native Stone Scenic Byway

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

NATIVE STONE SCENIC BYWAY

What’s your favorite Kansas highway?

OK, that’s a trick question; it’s impossible to pick only one. With so many highways in Kansas, there are plenty of good roads to choose from.

But since I was on Kansas Highway 99 recently, that’s the one on my mind.

K-99 crosses the state, south to north, beginning in Chautauqua County. While driving through Sedan you can stop to see the Yellow Brick Road. In Elk County, K-99 runs right by Hubbell’s Rubble in Howard, and it skirts Utopia in Greenwood County.

From Lyon County northbound, K-99 passes through Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie and Marshall Counties before it deposits you in Nebraska.

In Pottawatomie County, the Wizard of Oz theme plays again. There, K-99 has been designated as The Road to Oz thanks to the Oz Museum that opened in Wamego a few years ago. The museum features memorabilia from the 1939 film. Next door to the museum you’ll find Toto’s Tacos. (Can you say guaco taco?)

At Christmastime, Dave and I traveled on K-99 to the Manhattan area for a holiday dinner. In Wabaunsee County, this highway offers a beautiful ride through the Flint Hills.

Dave and I are not the only ones who think this particular stretch of road is scenic. At Eskridge, K-99 joins the Native Stone Scenic Byway, already in progress.

The Native Stone Byway is one of nine designated scenic roads in Kansas. (The eight others are Flint Hills, Frontier Military, Glacial Hills, Gypsum Hills, Post Rock, Prairie Trail, Smoky Valley, and Wetlands and Wildlife.)

One end of the Native Stone Scenic Byway is in Dover. The byway follows K-4 through Keene, then Eskridge, where it joins K-99 and continues past Lake Wabaunsee and on through Alma. The byway’s 48-mile stretch ends at Interstate 70.

Now there’s a reason they put the Native Stone Scenic Byway here – rocks are everywhere!

The Flint Hills region grows stone as easily as it grows grass. I once heard an old Chase County farmer say that it was harder to reclaim the land from stone than from timber. He had pulled and thrown his share of rocks.

In the fields and pastures you’ll see chunks of limestone scattered on the earth as thick as stars in a moonless sky. It makes me wonder how cattle can wander among the rocks without twisting an ankle.

In places along the byway, you’ll see limestone fences, vertical puzzles of rocks built in the 1800s.

Early settlers found little wood to build with but they were blessed with that limestone bed which provided material for stone houses and barns.

Ninety-eight percent of the downtown structures in Alma are made from limestone. So the Wabaunsee County seat uses the slogan “City of Native Stone.”

Alma is a handsome town. Throw a little morning sun onto those yellow stone buildings and they shine like a smile.

As Highway 99 pulled us around the Flint Hills, each curve offered a fresh view of the rounded landscape complete with swirling grasses in winter shades of ochre and orange.

This land is gorgeous in the spring when the pastures are Irish green, but it’s beautiful even in the winter.

The drive through the Flint Hills was pure entertainment as we watched nature move around us. Powerful winds blew clouds across the sky, across the sun. It was like viewing a time-lapse video; the sky was in perpetual motion.

Sunlight came and went at the mercy of the clouds. As the wash of light splashed across the land, I could feel the burst of energy with each wave. When it was out, the sun illuminated the hills like gold leaf.

K-99 is only one highway on a map full of scenic roads; there’s beauty all across the state.

Still, there’s something special about this region of Kansas. Our Flint Hills are comprised of ordinary things: stones, dirt, grass and sky – but the composition of those elements is, well, absolutely magical.

Copyright 2008 Cheryl Unruh