Beaumont's
Wooden Watertower
Beaumont's
Wooden Watertower
Location: 25 miles East of Augusta on Hwy. US-400/K-96. Turn-off is marked.
Nearest Towns: Augusta, El Dorado
Contact: Ph. 620/843-2591, 620/843-2422
Photos, except as noted, copyright Harland J. Schuster. Please do not use without permission.
In
the days of the steam locomotive, wooden water towers were a
common site along the railroad tracks of this country. Gone is the sound
of the steam whistle announcing the arrival of the mighty Iron Horse, replaced
with the diesel-electric locomotive engines of today. Gone, also, are the
wooden towers which provided the water needed in those days for the boilers of
those steam engines. The last example of a wooden railroad water tower in
Kansas, and one of the few left in the United States, is located in the village
of Beaumont and is listed on the National Historic Register. This
watertower, too, would have been extinct had it not been for the efforts of the
citizens of this small community.
Grass
grows between these once busy, but now abandoned rails.
Waiting patiently--but in vain--beside them, the old wooden water tower stands
ready to replenish the boiler of a long gone locomotive which will never
return. Most likely, the tracks themselves will be removed and sold for
scrap in a process that has been repeated all over the state and nation as
trackage is abandoned at an astonishing rate. The demise of this railroad
can be explained by the busy new concrete ribbon, Highway US-400, just to
the north.
Once a year, however, the dusty old rail town springs back to life. Each year in early June the Friends of the Watertower sponsor a weekend long event known as Watertower Days. Crowds swarm here to view a craft show, car show, and Bar-B-Q among other events.
The
historic Beaumont Hotel, established in 1879, reopened in the
Fall of 2001 and operates as a Bed and Breakfast and features a restaurant as
well. Airplanes land on a nearby airstrip and taxi right up to the hotel.
(Photo courtesy Galen Kleymann.)