Travel Reference
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flowering shrubs, and wildflowers, and its waters offer tempting opportunities for swim-
mers, boaters, and anglers.
West of Marion the drive eases into the little Mennonite community of Hillsboro. Be
suretovisitthePioneerAdobeHouse,builtbyMennonitesettlersin1876.Thehome,con-
structed of adobe bricks, is a fine example of the resourceful use of prairie materials.
4.
Maxwell Wildlife Refuge
Itmighthavebegunwithalowmurmur,liketherumbleoffar-offthunder.Thentheground
would tremble, suggesting an earthquake. But soon it became clear that the sound be-
longed to neither storm nor quake, but to the pounding hooves of an approaching herd of
bison—the occasional companion of the wagons rolling along the Santa Fe Trail.
Some 60 to 75 million bison once roamed the prairies, each bull weighing up to 2,000
pounds. Now only a tiny fraction of that number remains, and about 200 bison wander the
2,200 acres at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge six miles north of Canton on Rte. 86. After tour-
ing the preserve, return to Rte. 56 and continue west to McPherson. At Maple Street, a
block past Main Street, you can glimpse the town's venerable limestone courthouse, built
in 1894.
5.
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge
Pulling out of McPherson, Rte. 56 unspools due west, surrounded by farmland and prair-
ie—a flat expanse stretching to the horizon. When you reach Lyons, turn south on Rte.
14 to Sterling. The two-lane highway winds through quiet, open countryside dotted with
occasional clusters of cottonwoods. At Rte. 484, turn west into Quivira National Wildlife
Refuge—the first of two Wetlands of International Importance and a 22,000-acre home to
white-tailed deer, black-tailed prairie dogs, beavers, badgers, and more than 250 species of
birds, including the exceedingly rare whooping crane.
6.
Cheyenne Bottoms
About 13 miles beyond the salt marshes at Quivira's western border, follow Rte. 281 north
through Great Bend to Cheyenne Bottoms, sometimes called the Jewel of the Prairie.
This zig-zagging, north-south byway follows one of the busiest migratory bird flyways
on the continent and is part of the Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway. Here
some 41,000 acres of cattails and marshland serve as a major way-station for migrating
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