Ghost Town of the Week: January 25th, 2015: Portland

DISCLAIMER: I visited Portland way back in 2005, so this might not be the same today
I visited Portland on one of my first road trips, way back in July 2005. It was the first of many Ghost Towns I visited on the trip, but Portland has virtually no coverage online, so I decided to write about it today. The town is about a mile north of US-166 in southeastern Sumner County, about a mile and a half east of the Kansas Turnpike. The town has apparently been pretty ghostly for quite a while, as its post office closed in 1940! Coming into town from the south, you can tell a town definitely used to be here, but now it just looks... empty.

Portland from the north. The town has been reduced to an old school and grain elevator, 3 or 4 houses (mostly trailers) and a lot of empty treeless lots.

There is still a street network left in the town, although the streets have very generic county names: 145, 146th and 148th St. South and Prairie Road. Looking at a 1902 plat map of the town, none of those names were the original street names. On that 1902 plat map it shows a community with two churches, a train depot, a post office and a few houses, but not much else.
The most notable remnant of the old town is the Guelph Township school.

Portland's old Guelph Township school still appeared to be in good condition in 2005. It might still be used as a community building (for what community there is here).

Behind the school sits a dilapidated outhouse. Note that I am right in the middle of the told town; looking in the background you can tell how empty the old town has become.

A large looming grain elevator sits on the northeast side of town. I don't think it's still in use.

Their old elevator was still in OK condition, but if it's in use at all it's by local farmers.

Across Hydraulic Road is what looks like the scale house for the elevator. This building is definitely not in use anymore. I found it unusual that a major county road would separate a grain elevator and its scale house.

There is no remnant of a business district in the town. There may be 10 people left; a couple of the houses were shabby looking trailers and one large farmstead covers the whole northwest side of town. Looking at Google Maps, something I missed in 2005 was that there are several ruins to the west; I don't know if they're publicly accessible but I found that interesting. It's not that hard to find, so check the town out.

Ghost Town of the Week: Week of January 18th, 2015: Mitchell

I've been trying to promote Ghost Towns that have not received any coverage online. Unfortunately, I'm already running out of Ghost Towns that have much of anything left! So I'm going to cover Mitchell today, which has already been written about, but I'll provide my input.
Amy Bickel with The Hutchinson News does an excellent job wring about Ghost Towns near Hutchinson on her Blogspot, which can be found at http://kansasghosttowns.blogspot.com/ . She wrote quite a lot about Mitchell in 2011, and that can be found here:
http://kansasghosttowns.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post.html

An old church in Mitchell. It closed quite a while ago, however the building is being taken care of.

Mitchell's post office opened in 1882 and closed in 1953. The town comprises four square blocks and most buildings are now gone, however several houses are left and the old church, school and grain elevator do remain, however are not publicly used. The town is in central Rice County and not very far from Lyons; it's just a half-mile north of US-56 and the grain elevator is visible from the highway.

Like the church, the old school closed in the 1960s but is still being taken care of. I would imagine both buildings are probably used for storage now.

Maybe 20 people live in town. There are a few ruins but most of the town is wide-open and empty. The town's business district is nearly completely gone, except for this:

The town's old bank failed in the Depression and now just the vault stands on its foundation. This is about all that's left of the town's old business district.

Inside the vault: not much; about the same overgrowth that covers the rest of the foundation.

I'll leave this short and sweet, as this town has already been covered, but it's pretty cool and it's worth a visit.

Ghost Town of the Week: January 11th, 2015: Oketo

Unlike my previous towns I've posted, Oketo still has some life; it's still an incorporated town and had a population in the 2010 census of 66. But it's declined rather rapidly in population over the last few decades and I consider it a Semi-Ghost Town. And it's pretty cool.

Oketo's tiny downtown. Most buildings are unused but still preserved as part of a historical museum.

Oketo is located in far northern Marshall County and is just two miles from the Nebraska line. The town still has a number of well-preserved limestone buildings in its downtown. I think only the post office and one other building are still in use as active businesses, but the rest appear to have been turned into a historical museum.

The landmark building in the town is their old bank, which appears to be the headquarters of the town's museum now.

The town doesn't have a whole lot of dilapidated abandoned buildings as a lot of them have been torn down. Marshall County must have some money, because the little town has a brand-new fire station.

Oketo's brand-new Fire Station. The building is surrounded by empty lots.

Their limestone Post Office, one of the very few buildings still in use in their old downtown.

The town's not attractive to people who want to see abandoned dilapidated buildings, but the history with the old downtown is really cool in my opinion. Check out the little quiet place sometime.

Oketo's little watertower, set in front of empty farmland.

Happy New Year 2015! - Saffordville

Happy New Year everyone! Before I get into this town, I would like to give everyone a not-very-lengthy list of websites I have provided input into over my ten years of Exploring Kansas.
My Flickr Page - I am gradually putting my old 4X6 photos I have stockpiled from my old road trips onto my Flickr site. I'm almost done, and now have more than 1,600 photos of Kansas Towns I'd like to share with you.
GhostTowns.com - Kansas -  I have put a few towns into this long list of Ghost Towns in Kansas. There's not a lot of good information on this site though.
My Article on this town through Kansas State University - There's a reason I'm choosing this town as my first of 2015. Most of the information online about it was written by me.

Saffordville is located in far eastern Chase County, in the Cottonwood River valley. It's located just a half-mile south of US-50, although all you can see from the highway is an old falling-apart tin grain elevator and the elevated railroad line. But the story of this town is why I've become fascinated with it ever since I visited it first in 2007.

Mapquest view of Saffordville. Google Maps wouldn't remove the stupid "labels" that got in the way of showing the town's old street network, so I went to Mapquest instead. US-50 is at the very top of the picture. Old US-50 parallels the railroad.

Upon visiting Saffordville in 2007, there was something strange about the town. The town's road network was still largely intact and driveable, but there were nearly no buildings. There were a few scattered ruins, a couple old outbuildings and old sidewalks, but no major buildings. But the fact that the town's road network still remained fascinated me. Going down these eerie empty streets gave the town a true Ghost Town feeling I just hadn't felt before. And so, when I entered my Lost Kansas Communities class at Kansas State University in Spring 2013 and we were assigned to write about a Ghost Town, I chose Saffordville. And after finding the history about this town, I can now say that Saffordville is now my favorite Ghost Town in all of Kansas (so far).

The town has become very overgrown, and while little is left, the most notable ruin is this burnt shell of an old business, the last remnant of a business building in the town.

Saffordville was founded as Safford in 1872 along the already-established Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. When mail was accidentally being sent there addressed for the city of Stafford, in Stafford County, the town changed it's name briefly to Kenyon, before returning to Safford and then becoming Saffordville in 1888. The town reached 200 people by 1910, and had quite a few businesses, including a bank.

This photo of a bustling downtown Saffordville was taken around the turn of the century.

The town started to go downhill during the Great Depression, as the bank closed and people began moving away, but there were still about 100 people left in the little town when disaster hit. And, as it is well-known throughout eastern Kansas, that disaster was the Great Flood of 1951.

This aerial photo of Saffordville taken just two days after the Great Flood of 1951 shows the stunning aftermath of the flood. The entire town was covered with up to five feet of water and destroyed, except for the school, which sat on higher ground.

Saffordville sits just a mile north of the Cottonwood River in the heart of the Flint Hills. It wasn't the only town to be heavily affected by the flood, as every town along the river in the county - Elmdale, Clements, and of course Cottonwood Falls - suffered damage as well, but because the entire village sat in a little square area, the entire village was destroyed by the floodwater. Most people didn't rebuild; they moved to higher ground in the nearby town of Toledo, which still remains today as a small collection of houses. The post office stayed open another six years before closing in 1957, and the school continued to serve the surrounding rural area until consolidating in 1966. By that time Saffordville was a Ghost Town.

The town's old school is still in good condition and is still in use as a community building.

Today three buildings are standing in Saffordville: the town's old school, still in use as a community building, and two houses, both occupied. All three buildings sit close together on the south side of the Ghost Town. A number of ruins are visible in the overgrowth on ZZ Road, which is the main road through town.

The ruins of a house sit in the overgrowth in the old town.

It's possible that another bad flood struck the area and pushed the house off its foundation, the remnants of which can be seen here.

When I visited in 2007, the town's road network, albeit reduced to dirt and grass strips, was still driveable.

This strange building skeleton sits on the northwest side of the old town.

Just across the street from the odd building remnant, a peek of old sidewalk still remains in the heavy overgrowth.

Unfortunately, upon my return to the town in 2013 for my class project, I found that the old streets had been fenced off from the road and "No Trespassing" signs were posted on the gates. Which makes sense because surely someone owns the land now and they have made it private property.

A few trees and other miscellaneous markers still remain on the east side of ZZ Road. There used to be buildings here.

Old US-50 still exists as a narrow concrete road that parallels the railroad. This impressive abandoned grain elevator sits along it just before you reach the intersection with ZZ Road (and new US-50). I would imagine the elevator fell out of use shortly after the flood as well.

Saffordville is a Ghost Town that must not only be visited, but carefully analyzed and explored, to learn just how a town can grow, flourish, and then become a Ghost Town in an instant. If you're ever in eastern Chase County, check it out. Look at the old empty lots. Imagine a town of 200 people here, and then imagine it under five feet of water. It's sad.
There will be no Ghost Town Of The Week on January 4th, so enjoy this post and go check out Saffordville. I'll be back with a new Ghost Town on January 11th!