Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1915-11-26
Places Plated in Boom Days
Now Forgotten.
Shattered Ambitions and RivaIries Of
Ancient Days in Southern Kansas
Make Story Stranger Than
Fiction.

Hutchinson, Kan.-More than a
quarter of a century ago Frank w.
Knox had a vision of an exclusive resi-
dence district as suburb of the then
booming city of Hutchinson. He plat
ted Oakdale, on the top of the sand
hills, six miles northeast of Hutchin-
son. Right on the top of the hills,
where there was splendid view,
plenty of fresh air and running springs
Of delicious water, it was an ideal
place for such a suburb.
Possibly Mr.. Knox had hopes that
some day the city would grow out that
far. Anyway, he started numbering
the streets in Oakdale at Twenty-first
street, counting each section line be-
tween the city limits and his addition
as street. Oakdale is a sand hill pas
ture now. That is all it ever was. No
body ever built there. But Mr.. Knox
still owns the land, the plat still stands
and some of the county maps show the
"townsite of Oakdale" Just as it was
laid out in 1889.
Outside of the land men and alb
stractors there are probably not a
dozen people in Reno county who
know that there is a town plated in
the pasture adjoining Charles Oswald's
sand hill farm in Medora township,
and half a mile west of the Rock
Island railway, at the Viles catalpa
grove.
Another phantom town in Reno
county is Stella. All there is left of
Stella is the real estate, now a wheat
field, three miles west of Haven and
four southeast of Yoder.
The Stella Town company plated
the town on what was thought to be
the route the Missouri Pacific would
follow in building west through Reno
county. The town plat at the court
house shows there was Is acres in the
townsite. Main and Grant streets
were intended to be the main business
thoroughfares and First and Second
avenues were the principal residence
streets. j. P. Vincent was the presi-
dent of the town company.
But the Missouri Pacific turned on
toward Hutchinson and Stella re-
NAMED wheat field, and is yet.
Ten miles southeast Of Turon, IA
miles due west of Pretty Prairie and
10 miles southwest of Arlington is
Lerado. In the center of Bell town
ship is the natural market place of a
rich wheat country, but it is ten miles
from railroad.
One time Lerado promised to be.
come the second largest town in Reno
county, fortune was won as Lerado
doomed, and lost as Lerado fell. DR..
John A. Brady, wealthy physician of
Louisville, KY, came to Reno county
and plated Lerado, as head of the
Lerado Town company, in 1885. 1t
looked almost certain that Lerado
would be the junction point of two
railways, making it the big town of
southwestern Reno.
The Missouri Pacific was building
west from Wichita, and had already
reached Andale. Its projected route
took it through Lerado. The Rock
Island was building southwest, and its
route was surveyed through Lerado
That was to be the junction of the
two roads. So certain was Doctor
Brady and the Lerado Town company
of getting both roads that when the
Rock Island asked the town for aid
bonds they were refused, the town
figuring the road would have to build
there anyway.
But the road didn't have to, and the
survey was switched, sharp turn was
made at Arlington and the road veered
westward through Turon, and Lerado
was left ten miles off the road. And
then, as the climax Of i'll fortune, Jay
Gould was persuaded by L. A. Bigger
and other Hutchinson men to build the
road into Hutchinson.
Instead of Lerado being the juno.
ton of two roads, it was left without
any at all. Town lots that had sold
for as high as $1,000 we're not worth
the taxes. Doctor Brady lost his for
tune and returned East broken
hearted.
Lerado still exists on the map. There