Exploring the hidden glory of the Gyp Hills

This was my favorite one-tank trip of 2007. But then again, I'm a little biased when it comes to Barber County. It has to be one of the most beautiful parts of Kansas.

For this story, I interviewed Elmer Angell. I had seen his seed sign during my travels along the scenic roadway. He wasn't home, so I looked his number up and called him when I got back to work.

Before making the call, I didn't know about his passion for the area, his work to establish the scenic roadway or anything else. I called him by chance, and he was a great source.

He grew up in this area, and his dedication to the Gyp Hills runs deep in his blood. He talked about how he worked hard to promote the area, as well as made calls to the Kansas Sampler Foundation in an effort to get the Gyp Hills chosen as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas.

It was a finalist. But sadly, especially for Elmer, it wasn't chosen.

If you go, stop by Buster's. Then take the road through Lake City, which is pretty much a ghost town. The school is dilapidated. Most of main street is, as well. An old-style phone booth still stands. I think it even still had a dial tone.

August 12, 2007

Exploring the hidden glory of the Gyp Hills

By Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.com

MEDICINE LODGE - As you travel the back roads of Barber County, the sky expands across red hills that rise and fall like waves across a sea of grass.

And these rugged Gyp Hills are far from the supposed flat Kansas landscape.

It's where cattle roam in the summer until herded by cowboys, where good roads mean taking a path through a fence and crossing a grate into an open cattle range. Green cedars dot the butte-like terrain, where the windswept grasses give way to prairie flowers.

"It's beautiful, it's unique, it's a spectacular exhibit of what our creator did," said 87-year-old Elmer Angell, who lives and farms deep in the hills. "There is nothing like them in the world, and they cannot be copied."

Back road tour The Gyp Hills are part of an official Kansas scenic byway, which runs along a 40-mile stretch of Highway 160 from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater. But most won't see the area's true beauty unless they wander onto a back road.

Angell, who operates a seed farm, has lived amid the hills all his life. He helped establish a 22-mile route by his home that winds through the open range, putting up green markers that designate it as the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive. It cuts through some of the county's most dramatic scenery. The route takes unpaved roads through the rolling hills and red mesas, past Flower Pot Mound and other landmarks. Sunflowers line roadways, and the surroundings are seemingly quiet, except for the sounds of the wind and oil wells pumping.

It's just one of several roads amid the Gyp Hills that folks can travel.

A cold one at Buster's

Buster's at Sun City has long been known for its beer in a fishbowl, served up for 60-plus years.

It's the only business in the town of 77 - which sits beside the boarded up bank and across the street from dilapidated storefronts along Barber County's River Road. that folks can travel.

Yet the business lives on, serving hamburgers, steaks and smoked meats six days a week to the sound of spurs that clang regularly on the bar's hardwood floor.

"I hope it never gets to a place that I take the sound of those spurs jingling on the floor for granted," said owner Katt Kerns, who admits she didn't realize real-life cowboys still existed until she purchased the business in February.

The big-city girl confesses she hadn't heard of Sun City or Buster's until she was browsing eBay. She figured she'd stop by on her way to Oklahoma, where she was looking at another business venture. She never made it farther south.

For the past several months, she's been running the more than 60-year-old business started by a guy named Buster.

Buster Hathaway opened Hathaway's Tavern in 1946, and it was eventually dubbed Buster's. He ran it until he died in 1996, and he is buried in the cemetery on the east edge of town.

Buster's was the first bar in the state to serve draft beer, Kerns said, noting that Buster preferred Coors. It was also the last business in the state to have outhouses as bathrooms. Another owner added bathroom facilities after Buster died.

The restaurant and bar draws folks from all over, not just Barber County, she said. For the past several months, she and her family have been restoring the building, which also is the oldest in Sun City.

"Buster's is an icon in itself," she said. "But it also is an icon that was kind of run into the ground, and my job is to get it back up from the ground."

Promoting the Gyp Hills

Kerns said she likes to travel up the dirt road south of town into the Gyp Hills and look down at Sun City in the valley. The white church steeple peeks out above trees that envelop the town.

"Kansas is supposed to be flat, but this is so awesome," she said of the hills that surround her home.

But the area isn't familiar to some tourists, who have heard of the state's Flint Hills but not necessarily the Gyp Hills, Angell said. Where else would folks see those distinctive red hills, Angell asks.

Rocks are stained red by iron oxide. Water once covered the area, he said. Erosion sculpted the hills people see today. He wants others to take in the red hills he calls home.

"Folks come from other parts of Kansas or other states and are so amazed at the unique setting and the beauty of the Gyp Hills," he said. "I'm sure it is the most scenic areas of the state of Kansas."

If you go:

What: Barber County Gyp Hills
Miles from Hutchinson: 87 (about 1.5 hours)
Miles from Dodge City: 105
Gyp Hills Scenic Drive: About 3 miles west of Medicine Lodge on Highway 160. Turn left at the sign that says Gyp Hills Scenic Drive. Head south on Gyp Hills Road, then west on Scenic Drive Road. Watch for the small green signs. The route brings you back to 160 on Lake City Road. The 22-mile trip also is one of 24 finalists in the 8 Wonders of Kansas promotion.
Sun City: Take Sun City Road north from Highway 160.
Buster's hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit: http://www.8wonders.org/