Kansas Ponds and Posts

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Click on Photos for larger view.

Fence posts are often made of wood or steel because of their durability and cost. Since trees are not native to Kansas wood was scarce and at a premium during settlement. Necessity being the mother of invention, early settlers quarried limestone to make fence posts since it was readily available and free. The above photo was taken in Russell, Kansas, (home county of Bob Dole, US Presidential candidate in 1996).

In Labrador, all the lakes and ponds are natural, but on the prairie, lakes and ponds are man-made as Kansas has no natural lakes. In the fall, it's not uncommon to see one of these ponds bone dry like the photo to the left. Although water is scarce, the Kansas wind is a never-ending resource capable of turning the pump to supply water from the wells to livestock's trough. Working windmills are now rare and most windmills are idle and broken.

To have adequate water to survive, homesteaders had to hand-dig a well from 100 to 400 feet deep; the alternative was rolling a barrel to a nearby stream (if it hadn't dried up) and filling it with water and rolling it home. During spring melt the streams swell; but they usually dry up during summer. The streams are located approximately one mile apart and in western Kansas as far as 8 miles distant. This state with 213,109 sq km (82,282 sq miles) of land only has 216,196 km (134,338 miles) of streams and rivers and no natural lakes. There are three main rivers: Kansas, Arkansas and Neosho Rivers.