US Highway 281

Home on the Range with Kansas US Hwy 281

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the sky is not cloudy all day. "Home on the Range" was written around these parts. Out here on the Great Plains we are exploring North-Central Kansas, about 150 miles Northwest of Wichita. Just South of the Nebraska State line, Smith Center to Osborne on US Highway 281.

"Home on the Range" the state song of Kansas. By Dr. Brewster M. Higley wrote the words in a poem called "My Western Home" originally, in the early 1870s. Higley's first words are similar to those of the song today but not identical. The song was adopted by settlers, cowboys, and others and spread across the USA in various forms. The poem was first published in a December 1873 issue of the Smith County Pioneer under the title "Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam." Source: Wikipedia®.

Miss Kansas and all that in Pratt.

Pratt, Kansas close to 7,000 folks live here, founded in 1884. We are at the intersection of US Highway 281 and the East/West routes of Highway 54/400 in the south-central part of Kansas. The Miss Kansas Parade and Contest is held here each year. Home to the mighty Greenbacks, (a bullfrog is the HS mascot) along with the Pratt Community College Beavers. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy.

Pole Art in Hoisington, KS on US Hwy 281

 Hoisington, Kansas, around 3,000. North of Great Bend on Highway 281, intersected with Highway 4. A rich history as a railroad town, and agriculture community. One really unique feature of this town is the pole art. Hand-crafted, original metal artworks created by local artist Bruce Bitter adorn 62 poles along Hoisington’s Main Street. Take the Pole Art Walking Tour around town.

There are a couple of beautiful murals downtown as well, one on a Main Street building and a Depression Era mural inside the Post Office, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Check out the Sundial at the City Building of Hoisington, on the building’s facade as part of a WPA project in 1939. Can people really tell time with one of these? Home twice a year to the Whooping Cranes as they migrate. Here is the Gateway to Cheyenne Bottoms, the area is a vast hunting and fishing paradise. 

Snow angels to palm trees on US Highway 281.

If one wanted to bounce out of the house for some fun on 281 this weekend into the week ahead we might want to dial in the weather channel for a look see. Lets have a satellite look at the weather conditions some of our neighbors up and down US Highway 281 are or will be experiencing in the next few days.

Russell, Kansas on US Highway 281

Russell, Kansas. A population of less than 5.000. This Kansas community is just north of Interstate 70, a east - west route as it intersects Highway 281 here. Thirty five miles north of Great Bend also on U.S. Highway 281. The county incorporated in 1872. The economy of Russell County is primarily agriculture.

Traveling Kansas on US Highway 281.

 

Hello Kansas