A Landing a Day

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now more-or-less a once or twice a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

 Landing number 2152; A Landing A Day blog post number 580.

Dan:  I’m getting hung up on my lack of eastern landings.  So until I land there, I’m going to keep making statements like:  Today’s landing makes it 40 straight midwestern and western landings, thanks to this OSer landing in . . . KS; 62/58; 3/10; 18; 149.4. 

And also a word about that pesky OSer / USer thing.  See the number 18 above?  That’s 18 straight landings where I’ve been at 4/10 (four USers out of the last ten landings) or less.  In fact, 17 of the 18 have been 3/10 or even 2/10.  For you analytical thinkers out there (considering that I have about a 50/50 chance of USers vs. OSers), this is also getting a little weird.  The landing god works in unusual ways . . .

Moving right along – here’s my regional landing map:

 

My local landing map shows that I landed just outside of Horton:

 

Here’s my Google Earth (GE) trip:

 

Let me zoom back a little to show a GE shot that includes Horton:

 

See those smooth-looking darker green areas like the one I landed right in the middle of?  They almost look like lakes.  Street View coverage is lousy right near my landing, but I found a Street View shot nearby of one of the same smooth areas.  Here ‘tis:

 

To my eye, this looks like an early summer soybean field.  And a little research shows that soybeans are a major crop in Brown County.  On to my watershed analysis . . .

As shown below, I landed in the watershed of Otter Creek; on to Mission Creek; to Grasshopper Creek and finally to the Delaware River (first hit ever!):

 

Stepping back, you can see that the Delaware River makes its way to the Kansas River (60^th hit); to the Missouri (390^th hit); to the MM (844^th hit):

 

Of course, I first checked out Horton, although I was distracted by memories of “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Seuss (my only recollection of the name “Horton”):

 

From Wiki, about the plot:

The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who while splashing in a pool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. Horton surmises that a small person lives on the speck and places it on a clover, vowing to protect it.  He later discovers that the speck is actually a tiny planet, home to a community called Whoville, where microscopic creatures called Whos live. The Mayor of Whoville asks Horton to protect them from harm, which Horton happily agrees to, proclaiming throughout the book that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

In his mission to protect the speck, Horton is ridiculed and harassed by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear.  Eventually, he is harassed by a group of monkeys who steal the clover from him and give it to Vlad Vladikoff, a vulture. Vlad flies the clover a long distance, Horton in pursuit, until the eagle drops it into a field of clovers.

After a long search, Horton finally finds the clover with the speck on it. However, the Mayor informs him that Whoville is in bad shape from the fall, and Horton discovers that the various animals have caught up to him. They tie Horton up and threaten to boil the speck in a pot of “Beezle-Nut” oil.

To save Whoville, Horton implores the little people to make as much noise as they can, to prove their existence. So almost everyone in Whoville shouts, sings, and plays instruments, but still no one but Horton can hear them.

The Mayor searches Whoville until he finds a very small shirker named JoJo, who is playing with a yo-yo instead of making noise. The Mayor carries him to the top of Eiffelberg Tower, where Jojo lets out a loud “Yopp!,” which finally makes the animals hear the Whos. Now convinced of the Whos’ existence, the other jungle animals vow to help Horton protect the tiny community.

Phew.  I had forgotten how bizarre the tale is.  The internet is loaded with praise for the book and how it can be used to teach children (and adults) lessons about tolerance, prejudice, persistence and compassion. 

Evidently Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) harbored strong anti-Japanese & anti-German sentiments after WW II, and wrote the book after a trip to Japan as he realized that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

OK, it’s time to move on to Horton (not Whoville).  Here’s more-or-less what the City website has to say (OK, I did some editing):

Horton was founded in 1886 and named after Albert H. Horton, chief of justice of the Supreme Court.

Horton is an agricultural community located at what historically was an important “Junction” of the Rock Island Railroad system:

Population zoomed to approximately 4,000 shortly after the town was started, fueled by Rock Island Railroad support facilities.  It reached its peak in 1923 (5,012) and is now down to about 1,700.

A poster that was issued in 1886 to advertise the town of Horton was headed “The Prodigy of the West- the Wonder of Kansas”.  It promoted the town as the “best place for capitalists to make money.”

Here’s a cool back-in-the-day shot (1910 to be more specific), of downtown Horton:

The above shot says “looking north on Main St.”  According to GE, there is no Main Street today, but while taking a Street View tour, I discovered that Main St. has been renamed Central Avenue.  And check this out!  All but one of the buildings in the above photo are still there today!

In spite of the dirt road, Main Street was a more happening place back in 1910 . . .

OK, OK. So Horton’s another Midwestern railroad town, although bigger and more successful than most.  But I couldn’t really find anything of particular interest, until I stumbled on this rather sad video from “Fox 4” in Kansas City (aired Dec 30, 2013):

<script height=”433px” width=”770px” src=”http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=FydmFiajqmelOf5zg0vxdHPD9Jgbh_nj&pbid=99b31ca60977447aac65383d61b8503b”></script&gt;

 

Looking for a hook, I expanded my view to check out other towns.  To the southwest of Horton, I found Netawaka.  The town has a website, and under “history,” I found reference to the “Battle of the Spurs,” involving the infamous John Brown.  I found it to be a fascinating story.

The Battle of the Spurs happened along Spring Creek jut south of Netawaka.  Here’s a map:

From the LegendsOfKansas.com website, I lifted the following (with a little editing for brevity and clarity).  This is longer than most of ALAD’s cut and paste jobs, but well worth the read:

On December 20th, 1858, ten Missouri slaves were taken during a raid by “Free-State” abolitionists from Kansas, led by John Brown. The slaves were brought into Kansas on one of the routes of the Underground Railroad for Canada.

The party passed through Lawrence and Topeka.  North of Holton, Brown pushed on to the log cabin of Albert Fuller on Spring Creek, one of the stations of the Underground Railroad, where he decided to spend the night. He was detained several days on account of high water in Spring Creek, blocking his path.

Unknown to Brown, he was being pursued by a posse under command of John P. Wood, a U.S. Deputy Marshal who was on the lookout for Brown in hope of securing the reward of $3,000 offered for his apprehension by the governor of Missouri.  One of the posse members, acting as a scout, discovered Brown and three associates (along with the ten slaves) in the cabin.

The terror with which Brown had inspired in his enemies was never better illustrated than at this time. The Wood posse numbered some 30 men, all well armed and acting under authority of the law, while opposed to them were Brown, his three associates and the unarmed freed slaves.  In spite of their overwhelming advantage, the posse chose not to attack.

Instead, Wood drew up his forces in shelter of the timber on the creek and sent for reinforcements. In the meantime one of Brown’s associates crept out of the cabin under cover of darkness and set off to Topeka to inform known abolitionist Colonel John Ritchie that Brown was surrounded at the Fuller cabin on Spring Creek.

The messenger reached Topeka on Sunday morning, found Ritchie in church and informed him of the condition of affairs. The minister dismissed his congregation and preparations were at once made to go to the rescue.

About a dozen men left Topeka, traveling all night.  The next afternoon they reached Holton, where they were joined by a few others and then pushed on toward Straight Creek.

When they arrived at the cabin, Wood’s posse was entrenched in rude rifle pits they had thrown up to command the ford and the road leading to it. Upon learning that Brown proposed to cross the ford in the face of the enemy they attempted to dissuade him, saying that the stream was high, the crossing dangerous, and that there was a much better ford five miles up the creek.

Brown said that he intended to travel straight through; that those who were afraid might turn back but he intended to use the Fuller Crossing, saying, “The Lord has marked out a path for me and I intend to follow it. We are ready to move.”

Some of the men were uneasy, knowing that 45 entrenched men were waiting across the creek, but with Brown in the lead, the 21 men moved into the road and started straight for the crossing. Brown appeared utterly unaware of Wood and his posse, and led the way to the ford.

As the first of Brown’s party reached the creek, not a shot was fired, although some commotion in the rifle pits was noticed. Part of Wood’s men ran toward the horses, and within a short time nearly the entire posse was retreating in wild panic.

Brown’s party charged across the creek to give chase but found only four men left in the rifle pits. They threw their arms on the ground and informed Brown & Ritchie that they had remained merely to show that there were some of the Wood party who were not afraid.

Richard Hinton, a reporter from the East, gave this affair the name “Battle of the Spurs,” as no shots were fired and what promised to be a serious affair terminated with Wood and his men using spurs to prod their horses away from Brown.

This bloodless battle was important.  Had Brown been captured, there probably would never have been the affair at Harper’s Ferry to fan the slumbering anti-slavery blaze into open flame, and the name of the great emancipator would have remained practically unknown outside of Kansas.

From Wiki, about Harper’s Ferry and its ramifications:

In 1859 Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, and was able to briefly take and hold the armory.  He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the armory, but the raid failed.  During the raid, Brown’s group was attacked by militiamen and US Marines led by Robert E. Lee.  During and after the attack, fourteen people were killed (including ten of Brown’s men, two of whom were his sons).  Brown and two of his cohorts were hung shortly thereafter.

Brown’s subsequent capture and death seized the nation’s attention, as Southerners feared it was just the first of many Northern plots to cause a slave rebellion that might endanger their lives.

Most historians agree John Brown played a major role in the start of the Civil War.  Here’s a smattering of views of John Brown:

• He was “a monomaniacal zealot;”
• He was “one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation.”
• He was hailed as the man who “killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights” and
• Brown was “an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free.”

The song “John Brown’s Body” made him a heroic martyr and was a popular Union marching song during the Civil War.

The “Battle of the Spurs” takes on more historical significance, eh?  Would have been a big deal if Wood and his posse had put Brown out of commission . . .

What the heck, I found a You Tube version of John Brown’s Body, posted by Gloria Jane.  Here’s the write-up associated with the post:

Back around the time that northern Christians, abolitionists, free blacks, anti-slavery activists and Kansas land owners first formed the Republican party, John Brown, an abolitionist and Baptist preacher, gave his life to put an end to slavery. During the civil war northern soldiers sang this old song (words put to a traditional melody) as they marched off to battle.

After Julia Ward Howe heard Union troops singing this song, she wrote her own words to its tune. Soon after, her version was published in the Feb 1862 “Atlantic Monthly” as “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic”

There’s a dearth of GE Panoramio shots in the vicinity of my landing.  But I did find this in Whiting (about 7 mi SW of my landing and just east of Netawaka), by Defongi:

 

 

That’ll do it.

 KS

Greg

 

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