Traveling Tramps: "Green City" Greensburg/Kansas

From Wichita we took scenic side roads to Greensburg, among them the Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway, which got its name because of its gypsum-like white soil. Wide open space and endless horizon, no borders, just sky, almost no traffic, just fields (sorghum and wheat predominantly being cultivated) and wind mill parks - here an old windmill, pumping up water, in the front and modern ones in the background.

Mayor Bob Dixon in person expected us in the City of Greensburg's The Big Well Museum and Visitors Center. There not only the largest hand-dug well in the U.S. is to be seen (see pic), but it's at the same time a highly instructive museum on the history of Greensburg. The Big Well is a wonder of engineering that was completed in 1888 as the towns original water supply. At 109 ft. (33 m) deep and 32 ft (10 m) in diameter it is an impressive site. Visitors can walk down, almost to the ground, and climb up to an observation deck.

Of course, main focus of the exhibition around the well is the big tornado, which in May 2007 destroyed about 95 % of the city. Only three historic buildings have been left and all trees are gone. We've been visiting the town in 2010 or 2011 when they had just started rebuilding. At the time we met the mayor in his office in a trailer. Now we almost wouldn't have recognized the city again: It's impressive how many large (city/county) buildings were constructed as well as infrastructure (gas station/supermarket, shops, businesses) and private housing. Population is only about 900 people, but the city now appears much bigger. A new hospital and a new school were built using sustainable architecture. There is an Art Center, a public pool and wind turbines and solar panels all over town.

Dixon is a strong, determined, but gentle person - in addition to being a hobby-winemaker - and he was the one who brought the idea of becoming "green" to the city. The hardships Greensburg experienced helped the community band together and follow the principles of sustainability. Greensburg now has the most LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings per capita in the world) Greensburg today represents a model of a "green town", often described as the greenest in America.

After Major Dixon's emotional recount about the Tornado and its effects and his enthusiastic talk about the "New Green Greensburg" , we drove to Mullinville, KS to see some unique roadside attractions: first, the Fromme-Birney Round Barn - a magnificent piece of utilitarian architecture, built as a stable for the workhorses (Percherons) of a large farm operation in 1912:

M.T. Liggett Metal Art Work. We didn't meet with "M.T.", the artist, but he must be quite a character, having installed hundreds of flapping, whirling, and static metal sculptures set on poles along the fence line of US Highway 400, on his plot.This self-taught former-military folk artist set up fanciful creations and, also, political art which he calls "totems". And, it goes on and on along the highway.