Sunday, April 12, 2015

Inside the ghost town of Evansville, which was once home to the largest cattle ranch in Kansas history

Hidden along a dusty dirt track across several miles of scenic hills, it was formerly home to a post office, a grocery store and even a school house. But now, Evansville in Comanche County, Kansas, is a shadow of its former self, with its once-thriving commissary building in a state of disrepair. However, the ghost town is still home to two final residents, who tend to the site's numerous cattle - rancher Larry 'Dee' Scherich and his wife, Phyllis. The couple, who live in a house just north of the historic commissary building, do not have to worry about unexpected visitors, nor noisy neighbors. Instead, they encounter only hired workers in the town, which previously housed the headquarters of the largest cattle ranch in Kansas's history. Indeed, the town once boasted a ranch house and a commissary building after four ranchers moved to the area in the 1870s and early 1880s. The men, named as Jess Evans, Wylie Payne, Richard Phillips and Major Andrew Drum, set up an enormous cattle ranch in the region after an Army order banned Texas cattle drives from crossing the Oklahoma Strip, according to the book, Kansas: The Priceless Prairie, by author Mary Einsel. The operation, dubbed the Comanche Pool, which was based at Evans's ranch, began with 26,000 head of cattle. In subsequent years, the area grew into a town, with its own post office, grocery store and other buildings. It even had its own hotel with 'easy access to all cattle camps in the Territory'...more

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