A small road trip through the gravel roads of Southeast Kansas will bring you from a quilted fabric like landscape to rocky rolling hills. In the middle bottom of the region you will find Altamont in Labette County. It is known for its square mile sections divided into four by large hedge rows of tangly Bois D\’Arc trees. Heading north from there into Neosho and Bourbon counties you shift from perfect squares to a wide open landscape of rolling hills and small dribbling creeks.
Five miles east of the small unincorporated town of Elsmore, you will find Bourbon County State Fishing Lake. There you will find a quiet lake with a few notable landmarks. Most visited is Bourbon Falls, a thirty foot waterfall that serves as an overflow to manage the water level. Another is at the opposite end where two small creeks flow into the lake. There are rock cliffs and a rock creek that is crystal clear and a great place to sit and wade around in.
Near the dam of the lake I found a small plastic heart. It seems to have held some kind of liquid. I assume it was part of a necklace of some sort. Maybe a device for blowing bubbles. I collected it and carried its small meaning in my pocket for the day as I walked around the lake and drove the gravel roads.
A small plastic heart. This title and description repeated in my thoughts for the day. This began to create an image of the area I once knew so well. A place where I knew to have a big heart and a lot of character. There are good people here but they are economically oppressed. The landscape is weathered as are the homes. You now have newer homes in front of the old homes that fell apart. The new homes are now in disrepair and they will bring yet another home to put in front of this one. Three iterations of failed upkeep that is living and falling apart together. In front of this there are brand new washed and waxed cars in the driveway. It is a visual irony.
None of what I write is criticism, although there deserves to be some criticism somewhere. I don\’t know where I would focus the criticism is the problem. The observation is my only goal and to think through what I am seeing. The struggling economy in the rural midwest is no more an issue as the booming economies in the urban areas with their excess and waste.
My trip for the day was only meant to be a relaxing drive and a hike in a place where I spent a lot of time long ago. The small plastic heart a queue for something to think about and write about.