KCRag Forum

My grandparents lived in the Quindaro area of KCK until the early 1960's, but I never knew about the Quindaro ruins until last year.  I wish I'd been able to see them then.  As kids, we used to fascinated by the old Kansas City KS University, located near 38th & Parallel.  It was a monastery or something at that time.

I still like to sneak into old, abandoned buildings/houses, visit ghost towns, look at old cemeteries, find old rail beds. 

There are lots of web sites about urban archeology.  In general, the US doesn't value this sort of thing.  It's either torn down or vandalized.  When you travel, take the blue highways.  AAA maps are the best.

mlind wrote: I still like to sneak into old, abandoned buildings/houses, visit ghost towns, look at old cemeteries, find old rail beds. 

There are lots of web sites about urban archeology.  In general, the US doesn't value this sort of thing.  It's either torn down or vandalized.  When you travel, take the blue highways.  AAA maps are the best.

I have been known to be driving through Kansas or Nebraska and see an abandoned farm house and stop to go in and poke around.  I love looking around old houses to see what people left behind, there's something about abandoned buildings that just draws me in.  My fiancee HATES it   I always keep good flashlights in my car in case I run across somewhere cool.

mlind wrote: There are lots of web sites about urban archeology.  In general, the US doesn't value this sort of thing.  It's either torn down or vandalized.  When you travel, take the blue highways.  AAA maps are the best.

I agree. I have a bad habit of tripling the travel time on a relatively short trip just by taking side roads and stopping to explore towns. I hate interstate highways.

PumpkinStalker wrote: I have been known to be driving through Kansas or Nebraska and see an abandoned farm house and stop to go in and poke around.  I love looking around old houses to see what people left behind, there's something about abandoned buildings that just draws me in.  My fiancee HATES it   I always keep good flashlights in my car in case I run across somewhere cool.

I have wanted to do this so many times, but can never shake the fear that I'll step on a rotten board, fall through, and be stuck injured with no signal and with no one having any idea where I am.

staubio wrote: I agree. I have a bad habit of tripling the travel time on a relatively short trip just by taking side roads and stopping to explore towns. I hate interstate highways.

The last few years I've deliberately planned most of my trips to avoid interstates whenever I can.  I've been known to make a normally 8-hour drive last almost 3 days.  So many things to see that most people miss!

Sunken Garden, 11th & Minnesota, KCK:



All that remains- from the air:



Looking west:



These steps once led down:



Looks like an old Roman ruin:

[quote="mlind"]
My grandparents lived in the Quindaro area of KCK until the early 1960's, but I never knew about the Quindaro ruins until last year.  I wish I'd been able to see them then.  As kids, we used to fascinated by the old Kansas City KS University, located near 38th & Parallel.  It was a monastery or something at that time.



It was a creepy looking old place:



The monks that lived there used to have a few cows. One day a couple got loose and ended up wandering down our street. I was just a little kid, and it might as well have been space aliens come visiting.

Though it was called "Waterway Park", it was just an odd shaped depression at 11th @ Armstrong in KCK. There was once a lake there, one of a series the only one of which left is Big Eleven.



I'd always been intrigued by the ruin on the northeast corner:


I don't know if a wall once went all around the lake, ala Big Eleven. The last time I visited KCK I was going to take a closer look and snap some pics, but when I got there it was all gone. Some big construction is going on. Now I'll never know. 

If you ever visit Yosemite and have a lot of extra time, go see the coolest ghost town ever - Bodie.  It's a state park now, located off US Hwy 395 in the eastern Sierras.  It's in the middle of nowhere and when the mines closed, everything got left behind. The state maintains it in a state of 'arrested decay.'  Summer and fall are the only times to visit, due to weather.  There is a lot of interesting stuff all along 395.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=509

Another cool ghost town/state park is Malakoff Diggins.  The California Gold Country (State Hwy 49) is full of old interesting towns/mining ruins. 

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=494

Colorado has a lot of cool old mining ghost towns.   

DeadendLafayette wrote: Though it was called "Waterway Park", it was just an odd shaped depression at 11th @ Armstrong in KCK. There was once a lake there, one of a series the only one of which left is Big Eleven.

Great example. Thanks for sharing! It is insane how it has remained a dried up lake for so long.

Is Big Eleven "Big Lake" on 11th street?

staubio wrote: Great example. Thanks for sharing! It is insane how it has remained a dried up lake for so long.

Is Big Eleven "Big Lake" on 11th street?

Hmm.... I was going to say I had never heard of Big Eleven being called "Big Lake", then I copied this pic, and there it was!:



Does anyone know why it's usually called "Big Eleven"? For that matter, does "Big Lake" come from its comparison to the smaller lake that was at Waterway Park? IOW, "Big" compared to what?

I hope this isn't considered a thread hijack.

I used to live on the KCK neighborhood shown in these maps.

I was excited when I found this map from 1920. I had remembered the railroad line that passed Northwest Junior High and then passed just north of Klamm Park. It crossed 27th and then ended at a lumberyard. This map showed where it used to continue. All the dead-end and weirdly curved streets now make sense.
But something in the map doesn't make sense. Where did Chick, Mabry, Princeton, and Jessica Avenues go? Alot of those streets got renamed, of course, but those streets seem to have just disappeared!:


Now:

Reminds me of an old thread:http://forum.kcrag.com/http://www.kcrag ... 51#p337251

schugg wrote: Reminds me of an old thread:http://forum.kcrag.com/http://www.kcrag ... 51#p337251

Schugg,
Those were great Quindaro pix in that thread. I believe there's been an observation deck built at the ruins since you were there. Feel like taking some more pix?

More on Quindaro
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochi ... indaro.htm

I grew up in KCK and never heard Big Eleven lake called Big Lake.  I assume the Eleven comes from its location on 11th Street.  Once upon a time they actually had concerts there on the bandstand, and ice skating when it froze over, with barricades on the end where the spring kept the ice from freezing.

moderne wrote: I grew up in KCK and never heard Big Eleven lake called Big Lake. 

A lot of times those park names in Google Maps are wrong.  I don't know if they do it intentionally as proof of copyright or if it's due to buggy software.  For instance, Burr Oak Woods State Forest in Blue Springs shows up as Burr Oak Woods State Pond in Google Maps.    Monkey Mountain County Park in Grain Valley shows up as Monkey Mountain National Park.    And most maps I've seen list RD Mize Road in eastern Jack as just "Mize Rd", presumably because someone assumes the "RD" is a misplaced abbreviation for "road".

Aw, gee, I was going to load up the kids in the station wagon and stop at Monkey Mountain National Park on the way to Wally World.

Damn, I hope this thread isn't dead already- it's such a good subject.

Well, I made it back out to the Quindaro site this weekend thanks to this thread. The overlook is pretty nice, though it does remove the mystique of the ruins shrouded in the woods. They have cleared the trees for a pretty wide swath to make for easy access and viewing. From the platform itself, you can see a couple of old stone foundations. You aren't supposed to trek to the actual sites unless you are on a tour.









You can find a few remnants of old house foundations, roads and lot outlines in the adjacent woods along Vernon Street. This little neighborhood was completely cut off by 635.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... iwloc=addr

Also, the whole Quindaro corridor on the way really seems to be stabilising. It isn't worthy of its bad reputation. I noticed that the school and Springfield and Troup has been renovated as apartments.

DeadendLafayette wrote: I hope this isn't considered a thread hijack.

I used to live on the KCK neighborhood shown in these maps.

I love this stuff and I love exploring KCK, so please keep it coming.

Are there any remnants of this railroad right of way left? I realized that the area between Quindaro/Brown and Parallel is one that I've missed most of during my explorations, so I'm especially curious about finding interesting spots here.