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A TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE - By: The GYPSY
On Monday, May 10th I was heading North on Route 99 out of Oklahoma and
into Kansas. Right at the State line there is a whistle stop known as
Chautauqua, Kansas. Chautauqua is made up of a series of streets &
scattered houses that have seen better days. On the south end of
Chautauqua there is a non descript county road and by the turn to that
road is a small green sign which reads, "Elgin via county road." I have
saw this sign numerous times in the past as I traveled up and down route
99 but this day I decided to make the turn onto the county road and go
exploring.
Five or so dusty miles down the curvy unpaved road my destination was
reached.... Elgin, Kansas. This county road dead ended 100 years in the
past. How do you describe a town that's sitting within it's own
deathroughs, but still clinging to life? As I turned on to what had once
been the Elgin main street, I was struck by the oddness of that street.
On either side of the road were tall, overgrown weed lots. The road
itself was red brick cobblestone and the weeds from either side of the
road were intruding up through the cobblestone as if to claim back what
had once been theirs. The cobblestone road itself was odd, a four lane
road with a median strip suited for a major metropolitan city, yet laid,
traveled and forgotten before 1901. As I turned on to the cross street
of the main district, I was greeted by a brick structure who was home to
rats, mice and the occasional opossum. This had once been the Elgin
Bank, the center of financial commerce for this community. Now it was a
smorgasbord for any barn owl who might fly through one of its broken
windows. Heading West down this cobblestone street I was entranced by
the four structures to my right. There was a limestone foundation that
started from waist level and slowly rose to what had been the second
story of a business building. Within the center of this foundation grew
a small forest. Next to this building was another limestone building.
Part of the wall was cracked and appeared as though it was trying to
walk away from the rest of the structure as if to say "you are too
dilapidated for me to be associated with you any longer." Strangest of
all, were the two brick buildings directly beside the limestone building
of which I just spoke. As you looked through their unbroken display
windows you are struck by the fact that there are no doors on these
buildings, neither front nor back and that you are looking straight
through the buildings. The buildings appear to be lit from within but
that is just an illusion as electricity may have never coursed through
these structures. The ambient light enters these silent behemoths
through the top, for they have long ago lost their roofs. In the window
of the center building hanging upon a rack are a row of dresses,
untouched, undesired and never again to grace the back of any woman. I
found it odd that these dresses would be hanging in the window of these
open and abandoned buildings as if waiting for the buildings to once
again serve their purpose. Across the street from these buildings is a
lone, limestone building which once housed the local Masonic Temple.
What it's purpose was after the last Mason had graced it's halls is lost
in time and memory. Yet this building stands a silent watch upon the
four structures across from it.
At the end of this cobblestone road is a small metal structure situated
at the edge of a community park. Painted upon the side of the structure
are the words "Elgin, Kansas - The town too tough to die." The park
seems to attest to this almost as if it's a small flower poking through
a garbage pile, giving a glimpse of life where there is nothing but
death. Turning back North, away from the main road you come upon a
rusted water tower which has not held water in it for many a year.
Sitting right next to this water tower is a limestone building
approximately 20 feet wide by 40 feet deep. As you look at this building
you cannot help but be struck by its one outstanding feature. On either
side of the long side of the building are six windows - 3 to the North
and 3 to the South. But, these are not just any windows, these are
cathedral windows of the type that you might find in any large church in
any major metropolitan area on earth. Yet here they are giving character
to a limestone building covered in vines and who's shingles long ago
dissolved back to the earth.
I circled back to the main street, stepped out of my truck and looked
East, then West. The last signs that there had ever been any commerce
within this vanishing community was the empty Gulf Service Station
building 100 yards to my East and seeming so out of place in this town
who's day came and went before the last century even began. It seems
eerie to me now that as the sun was setting and lighting the western sky
a fiery red I stood within this town 100 years in the past.
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