Driving Across Kansas A Guide to I-70

In his introduction to Dan Dancer's The Four Seasons of Kansas, bestselling author William Least Heat-Moon reflects upon the Great Kansas Passage of those who race their cars westward across Interstate 70 without trying to understand the truth of the place. Ted Cable and Wayne Maley come to the rescue of those bored and blinkered speed-driven travelers with a new guide that will expand and enrich their understanding of a state whose history, in Heat-Moon's words, is "a tumbling of guns, torches, hatchets, and knives." Guided by Cable and Maley, the historical landscapes of I-70 come back to life, recalling landmarks and legacies relating to pioneer movements and Indian dispossession, army outposts and great bison hunts, cowboys and cattle trails, the struggles over slavery and women's rights, and the emergence of major wheat, beef, oil, and water industries. Their guide parcels out information, mile-marker by mile-marker, in a way that's equally accessible to westbound and eastbound users alike. For example: 85 Grinnell - In 1872, Grinnell had two large sod buildings for drying buffalo meat. The air was so dry here that meat could be stripped off in layers and hung to dry. The dried meat would be preserved and not spoil. This was critical in the days before coolers and refrigerators. People called this meat "jerked" meat because of the way it was torn from the buffalo's carcass. Today at gas stations or convenience stores along I-70 you have the opportunity to buy similar jerked meat in the form of beef "jerky." 117 Capturing an Iron Horse - In this area, along the railroad track paralleling I-70 to the north, Indians tried in 1868 to capture a locomotive "alive" by taking telegraphwire, doubling it back and forth several times, and stretching it across the track with an Indian or two holding each end. Needless to say, the "iron horse" running at full steam, tore through the snare like a rampaging buffaloCable, Ted T. is the author of 'Driving Across Kansas A Guide to I-70' with ISBN 9780700612604 and ISBN 0700612602.