FADING AMY

 

Lane County, Kansas

by

Gary B. Speck

 

 

Amy is a is a class D, near ghost town located along the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad line, 4.5 miles east of the Scott/Lane County line, 7.3 miles west of Dighton (2010 pop - 1038) and straddling SH 96, midway between CR 250/Dodge Road (west) and Eagle Road (east).

 

It was established as an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (ATSF) switch station named ELLEN in 1887. These sidings were built about every ten miles to hold the work trains as the railroad advanced across the prairie.  The town plat was filed July 22, 1887, but little development occurred until 1905 when a development-oriented farmer moved here and petitioned for a post office.  Since the name Ellen was already in use, names of ten local girls and women were submitted to postal authorities. Sixteen-year old Amy Bruner was the lucky winner and the Amy Post Office opened on January 22, 1906.  An elevator was built along the railroad, and by 1906, a number of other businesses prospered, especially the C. H. Boltz General Store as he built a playground for the kids to play while the parents shopped.  A baseball team and 35-member band also kept the residents entertained.  A bandstand was built for the band, and they provided much entertainment.  On Main Street, a blacksmith, farm implement shop and lumberyard (opened by John Herndon in 1906) joined the store, while just to the north along the railroad a flour mill and a grain & coal business also opened. 

 

In 1911, the town’s founder relocated his store eight miles east, to the county seat of Dighton.  He was followed by most of the other businesses.  In 1912 it was still listed as having a money-order post office and was connected to the county seat at Dighton by a telephone line.  The post office finally closed on May 31, 1954.  The store building was demolished around 2005, probably prior to our visit in July, as I did not see it.

 

In 2005, what remained was a HUGE bank of concrete and a few sheet metal grain elevators and silos - owned by the Garden City Co-op - all overshadowing several homes, an old church (Amy Baptist Church), a large, brick school (closed around 1980), and in 2005, the still open, tiny, corrugated metal  fire station.  HOWEVER, the church has since been torn down, as a November 20, 2010 article in The Wichita Eagle:  Baptist Church in forgotten town of Amy to be razed,” indicated it would be torn down “in the next few weeks, if not sooner.”  On the GNIS Acme Mapper “Google Street View,” the church IS gone, but the school is still standing and appears still vacant, but solid, looking the same as it did at the time of our visit.  At that time it had a nice playground with a still solid looking swing set.

 

Population figures:

·        1930 – N/L; 1980 - 25, 1990 - rural, 2000 - rural, 2010 -

 

LOCATION:

·        Ctr of S line Sec 14, Ctr of N line Sec 23, T18S, R30W, 6PM, Blaine Twp.

·        Latitude: 38.4819617 / 38° 28' 55" N

·        Longitude: -100.6018105 / 100° 36' 07" W

 

SOURCES: 

·       20; 25 (pgs 230-231); 63 (86, 95, 02 – L/6); 69 (E/3); 78 (May 2006, GTUSA Column);

·       PV (July 2005); W2; W5a (pg 69); W7a, b; W9; W12 (November 12, 2010), W13 (reprint of article linked above), W26le

 

This was our Ghost Town of the Month for January 2015

 

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FIRST POSTED:  January 07, 2015

LAST UPDATED: February 03, 2015

 

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