Flint Hills Steam Car Tour  (Click to return to home page)

                                                                By John Vsetecka

We had a great time at the Stanley Hotel Centennial Tour last June.  Our little group of five loaded up 3 Stanleys and headed west for a week in Estes Park.  I had the privilege of driving Ken Hand’s 1911 Model 72 Roadster and Rex Russell’s 1919 Model 735A on the tour.  After a week in Colorado I am proud to say that we returned home with 3 operating steam cars.

 In the past we talked about the possibility of hosting a tour in Kansas.  In August of 2008 our group attended the Ozarks Steam Car Tour in Eureka, Missouri.  This was where the wheels really started turning.  An informal survey showed interest in a Kansas tour.  In June 2009 we made it official at the Stanley Hotel.  During the Blowdown Banquet, Dick Friedeman announced that the Flint Hills Steam Car Tour will be held May 17-21, 2010, in Manhattan, Kansas.

 Manhattan proves to be an excellent location for a tour.  It is located between the 2 largest reservoirs in the state.  It is also close to several points of interest.  Most of all, Manhattan is surrounded by the scenic Flint Hills. The "Little Apple" offers many choices for dining and shopping. You can visit numerous museums and art galleries.  Manhattan is the home of America's first land-grant college, Kansas State University.

 We have laid out the tour routes on good paved roads.  We have creek bottom roads that twist and turn through gorgeous, tree-lined scenery.  The area also offers spectacular vistas of the beautiful Tallgrass Prairie.  If you can keep your fuel and steam pressures up, you will experience an entire week of steam car nirvana.  

 Abilene will be one of our destinations.  Abilene has too many attractions to explore in just one day.   The town has several museums and Victorian mansions.  In the 1870’s men such as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok kept the peace in the first of the Kansas cowtowns.  Texas cattlemen drove their herds of longhorns up the Chisholm Trail to the railhead in Abilene for shipment to eastern markets. 

 The Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad operates a mainline steam locomotive out of the old Rock Island depot.  The Santa Fe 3415 is a Pacific class locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1919.  They also run a 1945 Alco S-1 diesel locomotive.  At the Heritage Center we will see a steam driven 1901 C.W. Parker Carousel and exhibits on the railroad and westward expansion.

 The Museum of Independent Telephony honors the early development of rural telephone systems.  Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 patent granted him the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute telephone equipment.  Bell focused on installing his systems in major cities.  As people in rural areas began to demanded service, more than 6,000 independent companies installed non-Bell systems.  Cleyson Brown was one of these pioneers.  In 1898 he founded the United Telephone Company in Abilene.  Numbering among Brown’s many employees were David and Milton Eisenhower, the father and brother of the 34th President of the United States.

 Dwight D. Eisenhower grew up in Abilene.  His boyhood home is open to the public.  It is located on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library and Museum.  The museum houses artifacts from Eisenhower’s presidency and military career.  The collection also contains a 1914 Rauch and Lang electric car that was owned by Ike’s mother-in-law. 

 We will steam across the Konza Prairie and visit historic Fort Riley.  Fort Riley is currently the home of the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One).  In the past legendary military leaders General George S. Patton and General George A. Custer called Fort Riley home.  The Custer House still stands on the grounds. In Wamego we will see the 1879 Dutch Mill and the Columbian Theater from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.  We can also visit Dorothy's farmhouse at the Oz Museum. Wamego is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the film debut of the Wizard of Oz. 

 We will steam south down scenic highway 177 to Council Grove for lunch at the Hays House.  The Hays House is the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi River.  Council Grove was the last stop on the Santa Fe Trail for supplies and mail.  The wagon trains traveled 700 miles westward to reach Santa Fe.  Fortunately for us Kansans, we are now able to obtain supplies west of Council Grove.

 

 

On tour in Eureka, Missouri, August 2008.  Ken Hand with his 1911 Model 72, Rex Russell with his 1919 Model 735A, Dick Friedeman with his 1922 Model 735A, and John Vsetecka with a wrench under the hood.

 

Flint Hills Steam Car Tour  (Click to return to home page)