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New potential ghost town permission

Cherry Picker

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Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
13,470
Location
Dodge City KS
I was told a while back that my Nephew's father-in-law owns the land where an old town used to be. Finally did some research and found it was a boom town from the 1880s to 1940s when the post office was shut down. Got on my google earth and found the spot. Also looks like a nice small lake nearby that I'll bet was used as a swimming hole.

While at the height of prosperity, Mertilla contained a hotel, livery barn, blacksmith shop and drug store. In addition, a weekly newspaper, “The Mertilla Times” was published by H. L. Bishop. The following appeared in the newspaper on April3, 1886. "Mertilla was located 35 miles southwest from Cimarron City at the crossing of the West Plains, Cimarron, Meade Center and Garden City roads on the Wild Horse flats, within one mile of the famous Wild Horse Lake.

All this time in the heart of boom town Kansas and I have never hunted a ghost town.
 
What an opportunity!!

Will be watching for you posts from this hopefully "target rich environment"!
 
Just be aware that the terminology "town" or "village, in those days, was often-time *NOT* what we think of today, as "town" or "village".

Eg.: Not laid out streets, blocks of houses, blah blah Instead, in those days, sometimes the term "village" or "town" was nothing more than :

A country crossroads, with a few buildings at the intersection, where someone had "thrown out their shingle" as a "store". And the collection of a few other neighbors, within the surrounding ~5 mile radius, constituted the "residents".

And terms like "hotel" are often not what we think of as "hotel". Instead it was sometimes a room , in the back of a house, that someone would let out to passerbys if-need-be.

And terms like "post-office" was not what we think of today . As in : a parking lot, a clerk's counter, blah blah. Instead, it was often merely someone's front porch, where they'd agreed to collect the mail, for the surrounding 5 miles of an assemblage of recipients. And neighbors could mosey by and pick up their mail off someone else's porch.

But by all means find the cross-roads, and hit it.
 
Can you get any old maps of that town/area in digital format? If so, you may want to look into a free app and computer program called MAPRIKA (GPS on Ski Map in the app store) PM me if you want more info, I use the heck out of this combo for research and it's really paid off for me...
 
He did say it was owned by a shirt tail relatve. So it is private and i assume he is getting the necessary permission.anxious to see your finds!
 
Just be aware that the terminology "town" or "village, in those days, was often-time *NOT* what we think of today, as "town" or "village".

Eg.: Not laid out streets, blocks of houses, blah blah Instead, in those days, sometimes the term "village" or "town" was nothing more than :

A country crossroads, with a few buildings at the intersection, where someone had "thrown out their shingle" as a "store". And the collection of a few other neighbors, within the surrounding ~5 mile radius, constituted the "residents".

And terms like "hotel" are often not what we think of as "hotel". Instead it was sometimes a room , in the back of a house, that someone would let out to passerbys if-need-be.

And terms like "post-office" was not what we think of today . As in : a parking lot, a clerk's counter, blah blah. Instead, it was often merely someone's front porch, where they'd agreed to collect the mail, for the surrounding 5 miles of an assemblage of recipients. And neighbors could mosey by and pick up their mail off someone else's porch.

But by all means find the cross-roads, and hit it.

Yup, it was actually called a "township" in the day not a town at all. JUst a spread out country community. But, there were 2 schools I know of and a potential swimming hole. I'm doing my homework. My Nephew's Father-N-Law told me there are foundations still there on his property.

You just told everyone in your area where that town is/was. Info like that I would keep to myself, hope no one beats ya to it. Just saying.

Here in southwest Kansas I could probably count the number of detectorists on one hand and have fingers left over LOL. In my almost 50 years of detecting this area, I've met a total of 4 people swinging a detector, and that is for miles & miles. Even so, I'm at a point in my detecting that I would be more than happy to share sites with fellow detectorists.

Can you get any old maps of that town/area in digital format? If so, you may want to look into a free app and computer program called MAPRIKA (GPS on Ski Map in the app store) PM me if you want more info, I use the heck out of this combo for research and it's really paid off for me...
11-26-22 02:34 PM

Thanks Robby, but I've got some pretty good sources after nearly 50 years. I've got my own hard copy of the entire state of Kansas in plate maps, and I am quite well-versed in using the Library Of Congress (Chronicling America) site to search newspapers for pictures & stories. I do appreciate the offer

One of the schools. The story goes they held church and many community meeting/celebrations here.
 

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Thanks Robby, but I've got some pretty good sources after nearly 50 years. I've got my own hard copy of the entire state of Kansas in plate maps, and I am quite well-versed in using the Library Of Congress (Chronicling America) site to search newspapers for pictures & stories. I do appreciate the offer

OK, the only reason I suggested is because with maprika you overlay the old map showing where buildings were onto current satellite imagery and use your phone's GPS to go to them... helpful if there's no foundations.

https://youtu.be/d6XOvDi0rkQ
 
OK, the only reason I suggested is because with maprika you overlay the old map showing where buildings were onto current satellite imagery and use your phone's GPS to go to them... helpful if there's no foundations.

https://youtu.be/d6XOvDi0rkQ

I may check that out, but I do old map overlays on Google Earth also. That is how I found the old motorcycle track grandstands. I overlaid a 1938 aerial picture of the track on a current Google Earth image. Gotta love this modern technology.
 
Just be aware that the terminology "town" or "village, in those days, was often-time *NOT* what we think of today, as "town" or "village".

Eg.: Not laid out streets, blocks of houses, blah blah Instead, in those days, sometimes the term "village" or "town" was nothing more than :

A country crossroads, with a few buildings at the intersection, where someone had "thrown out their shingle" as a "store". And the collection of a few other neighbors, within the surrounding ~5 mile radius, constituted the "residents".

And terms like "hotel" are often not what we think of as "hotel". Instead it was sometimes a room , in the back of a house, that someone would let out to passerbys if-need-be.

And terms like "post-office" was not what we think of today . As in : a parking lot, a clerk's counter, blah blah. Instead, it was often merely someone's front porch, where they'd agreed to collect the mail, for the surrounding 5 miles of an assemblage of recipients. And neighbors could mosey by and pick up their mail off someone else's porch.

But by all means find the cross-roads, and hit it.

These are good points to think about when looking at old maps.
 
As a Kansas resident, you can access vintage Kansas newspapers from the early 1920s on back at the Kansas Historical Society website for free. Haven't done it for a while but if you can't find where I can help. There is info about the town in old papers for sure.
 
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