91W350
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- Salina, Kansas
Today we fired up the old M1009 and headed out for the boys daily run. I decided to go east of town into the hills and take a couple of photos of a nearby landmark. The road we are on is the hill between the hills. The big dome is known locally as the Iron Mound.
The Iron Mound is visible for miles around Salina. We sit in both the Saline and Smoky Hill River basins. The Saline dumps into the Smoky just east of Salina and about that far further east, the Solomon River dumps into the Smoky as well. Someplace between Solomon and Junction City, where the mighty Republican River joins, the Smoky gets renamed as the Kansas River. Junction City got its name from the junction of the Kansas and Republican rivers.
History and Geography lessons teach us that the Kansas becomes the Kansas at the confluence of the Republican, but it does not show up on our maps or gps units that way very reliably. Somewhere between Lawrence and Kansas City, the Kansas River becomes known as the Kaw River. Anyway... we did not get out of Saline County so that is wasted history. We are the Tri-Rivers County though, Tri-Rivers Fair etc... it keeps popping up.
The hills you see in the photos in the distance would be the ridge between the Smoky and Republican Rivers. Off to the west, the Smoky winds generally south of Interstate 70 and the Saline winds its way east north of Interstate 70. What does all that do for us? We have very fertile basin to farm and farming brought us huge wheat crops. The wheat brought us elevators in the late 1800s and that is primarily what our city's growth started from.
During WWII they developed the Smoky Hill Bombing Range just west of that basin and the Smoky Hill Air Force Base in the flat of that basin. Salina boomed, then Interstates 70 and 135, originally 35W, came through and the trucking industry boomed here. When the base closed, everybody thought it was curtains for us, but we survived and have been enjoying a pretty steady growth since the mid 1060s.
We may not have much terrain here in the city, but go 15 miles or less in any direction, except south, and you are in those beautiful Smoky Hills. Going south the highway follows the Smoky River Basin then crosses over into the Arkansas River Basin. It is pretty uneventful between Salina and Wichita....
Anyway... the boys and I went out for our evening stroll in the hills and I snapped some photos. The road is pretty nasty in spots and we did have some recent rainfall, but it has been dry enough that the road was not bad.
I walked along, enjoying the frogs, hawks, just generally the sounds of nature in the evening. Then it dawned on me.... I was short a dog. He was out in the pasture approaching the cattle. He is bad about chasing anything that will run, but they were not running. I called and he came, I wished I had taken a photo when he was really close to them and they were starting to circle, but I was more concerned with getting him out.
I had to snap a couple of the boys in the driveway, they looked like they were ready to leave without me. Sure was a pretty day.... those hills.... Kansas is so flat you know.....
Oh yeah, I got caught in traffic and almost missed the sixes... It will be a few before they come back. Glen
The Iron Mound is visible for miles around Salina. We sit in both the Saline and Smoky Hill River basins. The Saline dumps into the Smoky just east of Salina and about that far further east, the Solomon River dumps into the Smoky as well. Someplace between Solomon and Junction City, where the mighty Republican River joins, the Smoky gets renamed as the Kansas River. Junction City got its name from the junction of the Kansas and Republican rivers.
History and Geography lessons teach us that the Kansas becomes the Kansas at the confluence of the Republican, but it does not show up on our maps or gps units that way very reliably. Somewhere between Lawrence and Kansas City, the Kansas River becomes known as the Kaw River. Anyway... we did not get out of Saline County so that is wasted history. We are the Tri-Rivers County though, Tri-Rivers Fair etc... it keeps popping up.
The hills you see in the photos in the distance would be the ridge between the Smoky and Republican Rivers. Off to the west, the Smoky winds generally south of Interstate 70 and the Saline winds its way east north of Interstate 70. What does all that do for us? We have very fertile basin to farm and farming brought us huge wheat crops. The wheat brought us elevators in the late 1800s and that is primarily what our city's growth started from.
During WWII they developed the Smoky Hill Bombing Range just west of that basin and the Smoky Hill Air Force Base in the flat of that basin. Salina boomed, then Interstates 70 and 135, originally 35W, came through and the trucking industry boomed here. When the base closed, everybody thought it was curtains for us, but we survived and have been enjoying a pretty steady growth since the mid 1060s.
We may not have much terrain here in the city, but go 15 miles or less in any direction, except south, and you are in those beautiful Smoky Hills. Going south the highway follows the Smoky River Basin then crosses over into the Arkansas River Basin. It is pretty uneventful between Salina and Wichita....
Anyway... the boys and I went out for our evening stroll in the hills and I snapped some photos. The road is pretty nasty in spots and we did have some recent rainfall, but it has been dry enough that the road was not bad.
I walked along, enjoying the frogs, hawks, just generally the sounds of nature in the evening. Then it dawned on me.... I was short a dog. He was out in the pasture approaching the cattle. He is bad about chasing anything that will run, but they were not running. I called and he came, I wished I had taken a photo when he was really close to them and they were starting to circle, but I was more concerned with getting him out.
I had to snap a couple of the boys in the driveway, they looked like they were ready to leave without me. Sure was a pretty day.... those hills.... Kansas is so flat you know.....
Oh yeah, I got caught in traffic and almost missed the sixes... It will be a few before they come back. Glen
Great pics, Nice cool weather and surroundings like that I could drive in the trucks all day enjoying it!
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