Customer Reviews

Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Traveler's Guide

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One of the best regional history books I have ever read, Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Travellers Guide, can best be described as BIG, Bold, and brash. Actually a greatest hits package of the first three self-published books, this is a gem to have for any library.

According to the author, Kansas has had 6,000 ghost towns, and he writes about the cream of the crop here. Big, bustling, boom towns that had thousands of people and now have nothing. Fitzgerald crafts a good yarn about each of the hundred he writes about.

This book went on to generate several news emmys, a bunch of PBS documentaries, and a sequel 6 years later. Even a record album, In the Spirit of Things, by his close friends, the rock band Kansas. And it is fun, fun, fun to read. Don't sit and read from beginning to end in one sitting, for that is too much overkill. It is best in small doses.

As a travellers guide, the book is not that great. No really good maps or directions. You will have to research in more detail to get to some of these places. And for some of these places, like Riley, there's nothing there. My picks would be White Cloud, Neosho Falls, Eminence, and Coolidge. Take your pick though, a lot of great exploring here.

There has not been a great Kansas history series like this one since the last book, Faded Dreams. Fitzgerald needs to write another sequel. I'm getting bored with the stuff out there right now. I need another Kansas roadtrip.

This is probably one of the top ten best regional histories I have found to date. Maybe even in the top three. Countless books have followed the same format since, with less success.

This book made tangible the hopes and dreams of the men and women who moved west in search of better lives. Fitzgerald has included maps, photographs and layouts of towns that illustrate the optimism (and in some cases, the deceptiveness) of investors and town founders who hoped to establish new communities. I have lived in Kansas most of my life, but never appreciated why earlier generations moved here, and ultimately why they thrived or failed. Fitzgerald clearly demonstrates how county seats, mines, railroads, rivers, and interstates can save or kill a town. In addition, he has included where to find the town's remains - if there are remains to be found. This book is easy to read in little snippets. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Kansas history and the history of westward expansion, as well as anyone who enjoys good anecdotes that build connections to those who have come before us.

This book contains brief histories/descriptions of about a hundred towns or locations that no longer exist, except for perhaps as place names on local maps. Most places described, however, were once "big" enough to support a post office during earlier times. The book is broken down by sections of the state and then by county, making it easy for the traveler to plan out an itinerary. Maps of each section are also included. Fitzgerald has done his research well and thoroughly. There are lots of photographs as well. Although Fitzgerald draws out the temptation to get in the car and seek out many of the towns he describes, the book will give just as much satisfaction to the armchair traveler, too. This is a model work on how to write a guide to lost towns, not only in Kansas, but anywhere. A terrific book.

I know the author personally. As I see above that Joseph W. Snell is listed as designer. Not so. He only did an introductory page. I typed & edited the manuscript. A sequel that is doing just as well is "Faded Dreams, More Ghost Towns of Kansas". Both volumes contain at least 100 old KS towns & histories, with maps and many pictures. Both are of great interest to the western history buff.

Thanks.