A handful of Chase County communities were recently featured in a travel blog that seeks out the “hidden gems” of Kansas.
John Wise posts videos of his explorations of Kansas ghost towns under “Travel with a Wiseguy” on YouTube. He told the Leader-News this week that he travels often through his job as a track and field coach at Wichita State University. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in 2020, he was left feeling pretty antsy.
“We travel all the time, so it was kind of a strange deal,” he said, adding that his traveling started that summer. “I didn’t think it would become much of anything, except something for me and some friends.”
A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Wise said he moved to Kansas about 16 years ago. He bought a few travel books, including one on Kansas ghost town communities. From there, he started doing some research and came up with a map that has “like 100 little dots on it of places I found and I want to get to eventually.” A ghost town, he said, is a town that’s either been deserted or has just a few remaining residents.
“If I have a weekend or a day, I kind of find a grouping of those little dots on my map,” he said. “The Flint Hills area is kind of like in a little grouping and I love the Flint Hills area.”
So, Wise and his friend Brent Patton hit the road for a day trip with a mission to explore the area. That’s how Wise came to visit Matfield Green, Clements, Bazaar and Cedar Point.
“I generally travel most weekends with our team,” he said. “When I have an off weekend or a gap in the schedule, I might go do something like that. But yeah, so I live in Wichita. So that was pretty easy little day trip. I actually did some more that day too that I’m going to do a later video of, of like, we’ll city, I think it’s called there in other, eight. Oh, and then like some other towns around there. So actually did some more stuff that day, but that was kind of the focus of it was to go up to the Flint Hills.”
Wise started his exploration in Cedar Point, visiting the historic Drinkwater & Schriver Mill. The grist mill, built in the 1870s, is the subject of a restoration project. He called the community a “ghost town hunter’s dream.” Next stop was Clements to see the stone arch bridge and what is left of the 1880s railroad town. They then visited Bazaar and Matfield Green.
Wise said he understands some may disagree with his assessment that Matfield Green is a ghost town, but said the population diminished from a high of around 330 in 1880 to 49 in 2020. Still, he acknowledged that the town is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance.
“What I think about is the history of how those towns developed,” he said. “I try to tell a little story about how they developed and what happened to them — why they aren’t what they used to be. A lot of them are consistent, you know, they were by a railroad and the railroad ended up not being the main way of transportation anymore and the businesses moved elsewhere.”
Wise said he also enjoys meeting people who live in those areas. He emphasized the need to be respectful of private property when visiting these locations. He uses a drone and his iPhone to capture his footage and tries to be as invasive as he can be. And, he isn’t afraid to talk to locals.
“I really like the places I’m visiting,” he said. “I think in terms of if people want to go visit these places, just be very respectful of the places. I think sometimes people go to these places and just walk around where they might want to go. They might try to go into a building that’s private property or something like that.”
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