Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1896-11-05
"A RIVERS PRANK.
Remarkable Mishap to a>Big Kan.
sas Settlement.
a Once Lively Town Eaten Up by
the Missouri

In the story of the rise and fall of
Weatern boom towns within tue past
generation there is one strange history
that has never been written-the pass
ing of Elwood, Kan.
The Missouri river. twenty feet deep,
reais aud gurgles aud foams over the
spot that was once the mair street.
Where hustling merchants once dis
played their wares in commodious
houses, and the hardy plaiusEan
bumped elbows with the moneyed
tenderfoot fresh from the East, the
| broad and erratic river flows today.
| The corner lots that once fitted back
and forth in the real estate exchange
have been g,immering like the will o
the wisp of the gold seekers-gone TO
make sands on tue seashore. E.
wood has tumbled into the muddy
Missouri.
One Seth Allen, whose memory is
still revered along with that Of his
famed colouia ancestors, Of whom he
often boasted, flung his lnnk frame
from a prairie schooner at the door of
the principal tavern on the enstern
shore one spring day in the early sos,
swearing he would 60 no further. The
emigrants Of whose party he had been
one recuperated few days, and then
started for the gold fields. Allen
stood on the river bank and watched
stood on the bank and patched them
toncn the farther shore. Then. it is
that the wts,ern side of the Missouri
River was the proper place for emf
grants to outfit and make their de-
parture.
At any rate, few days passed before
a wooden building. with the sign,
T'Last Chance T"~o.n, swinging from
the door, stood on the pleasant
prairie across from St Joseph. Other
houses soon clustered around Tavern
Keeper A!lpn's, and Yankee industry,
com bined with foreign capital, had a
line of ferry steamers-sturdy stern
wheelers - actively churning the
muddy waters of the Missouri into
foam before the summer was dead.
Elwood grew-grew aud prospered
Truly, it filled !ong-felt want.
The next year overland traffic in
creased. Long caravans came and
went; settlers and pioneers came and
remained The bnstIing real estate
agent. the honest home-seeker, the
rakish river gambler, the arsenal-be-
girdled terror, the nondescript hang
er-on, all iriftcd into Elwood.
The great Western Hotel, the finest
structure Of its kind anywhere on tht
river, was built, and old timers Of this
citv-former residents of Eiwood, who
came and went with its powers ant
, glory-today relate many wonderfn
tales Of the revcls that went on be;
Meath It's prosperous roof.
Little by little the best part OF Ell
wood crumbled and was swept into th'
stream. Today there is but little 0
the once prosperous town left stand
ing. One Of tue most interesting o
: the old landmarks yet remaining j
the Elwood Jail, built on land higl
and dry, far removed from the rive
=, bank. Within its narrow confine
many a tough character has bee
thrust by the town marshal.
As the place looks today, it present
the appearance of q deserted village
l\The honses now standing were q tn
suburbs before the course Of the rive
was changed. The greatest evidenc
of life that IS there now is the depo
of the St Joseph md Grand Islam
Railroad Company, which IS about
mile from the original toEn site
THIS road was built after Elwood VA
Il on the wane The few remainin
!. houses are occupied by fishermen an
i the people who exc out precar'ou
+, existence by doing odd jobs IN to
CITY across the river. st Louis b
( public
The nna Thinr Essential