"ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS" a Arkansas City Travel Page by MarkJochim

In the summer of 1994, I participated in an archeological field school/excavation in this small, southern Kansas town. Most of the photos on this page will be from that dig.

I have nice memories of the town - the people were very friendly; having always lived near big cities, I really enjoyed the small-town mentality and ambience.

Although the work we were doing (salvage archaeology before the Kansas Highway Department extended a road) was very hot and dusty, it was always nice to retire to our campsite each afternoon. Our tents were pitched at a very nice park just south of the Arkansas River.

There are a number of nice restaurants in town - good home-style cooking. Sites nearby include the Cherokee Strip Museum (where the land rush into Indian Country began in the nineteenth century) and the Chaplin Nature Center. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing while there (did get to the Cherokee Strip Museum, however). One night, a tornado touched down nearby - we were given an opportunity to take refuge in a couple of town businesses, but I stayed in my tent - I really thought it was going to fly away!!