7 of the Most Charming Small Towns to Visit in Kansas
With nicknames like The Sunflower State, The Wheat State, and The JayHawker State, Kansas' rural charm is well-established. Yet peeking out from sunflowers, wheat stalks, and jayhawks are small communities with opulent attractions ranging from a sculpted Garden of Eden to a Scandinavian inn to a presidential shrine to a Wizard of Oz museum to an Old West gallery. Thus, small-town Kansas is scenic inside and out. See which charming communities to visit for a complete cache of Kansas.
Lucas
If hunting for offbeat Kansas charm, look for Lucas, a community with more oddities than people. Just over 300 residents have free (or small entrance fee) rein of several scrap metal roadside pieces from Jim Dickerman's Open Range Zoo; dozens of rock sculptures at Miller's Park; 150-plus folk sculptures at SP Dinsmoor's Garden of Eden; the toilet-bowl-shaped working restroom of Bowl Plaza; and the 14-foot World's Largest Souvenir Travel Plate, whose tiny photographed depiction is stored among countless other meta-minimizations at the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. Such attractions have made Lucas the "Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas."
Even more odd charms can be found 20 minutes south in Wilson. This 850ish-person community claims Tobias Water Tower (a historic water tower that doubled as a jail) and the World's Largest Czech Egg (which stands 20 feet tall and has a traditional Czech design).
Lindsborg
While Lucas is the "Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas" and Wilson is the "Czech Capital of Kansas," Lindsborg is "Little Sweden, USA." It was founded by Swedish immigrants and is still a Northern European oasis in Middle America thanks to Swedish descendants and attractions. Among its Scandinavian spectacles are the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum, Trollslända Toy Store, Birger Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery, and Öl Stuga bar and restaurant. Even Lindsborg's hotels, like the Dröm Sött Inn and the Rosberg House Bed & Breakfast, look straight out of a fairy tale. Book a weekend to coincide with one of Lindsborg's many cultural festivals.
Scott City
You may have mined a ton of Kansas' cultural charm but few of its natural gems. Scott City will balance the loot. This western Kansas community is a gateway to the badlands and all their fantastic features. Chief of these is Lake Scott State Park, which contains not just the titular spring-fed lake but El Cuartelejo, the northernmost known Native American pueblo and the only one in Kansas. You can learn more about these ruins at El Quartelejo Museum in Scott City proper.
Other nearby wonders are Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park, a 330ish-acre preserve of geological formations like Niobrara Chalk; Battle Canyon, a private canyon overlooked by a memorial of the Battle of Punished Woman's Fork; and Monument Rocks, the first Kansas site designated a National Natural Landmark.
Cottonwood Falls
On the opposite side of the state but in a similarly scenic location, Cottonwood Falls was named for the falls on the Cottonwood River that runs through the famous Flint Hills. This region spans millions of acres and constitutes most of the last remaining tallgrass prairie. Grass up to 10 feet tall surrounds Cottonwood Falls, especially a few miles north of town in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. In addition to roughly 500 species of plants, the preserve has bobcats, rattlesnakes, burrowing owls, and even bison.
If you keep from getting lost in the tall grass (which is generally only three to five feet tall), get some R&R downtown. Grand Central Hotel & Grill, Chase County Historical Society & Museum, or Tallgrass Antiques can cap off a trip to Cottonwood Falls.
Abilene
In recent years, Abilene was named one of the best small towns to visit by Smithsonian magazine, one of the best historic small towns by USA Today, and one of the best weekend getaways by Kansas! magazine. It is home to approximately 6,500 people, but its homegrown hero is WWII victor and 34th US president Dwight D Eisenhower, whose childhood home is part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum. From this elevated estate, which also contains his grave, visitors can race across the street to the Greyhound Hall of Fame, a commemoration of canine competitors, some of whom live there in retirement.
On the south side of Eisenhower's museum is the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad, which has the only operational steam locomotive in Kansas. Following a ride through the Flint Hills on this heritage railroad, tourists can check out another heritage haunt, Old Abilene Town, which preserves Abilene's Wild West history. The most interesting small town in Kansas? Maybe it's Abilene.
Wamego
Home to 4,841 people according to the 2020 Census, Wamego's top attraction is the OZ Museum, which houses thousands of Wizard of Oz artifacts from the last 124 years. They range from first editions of L. Frank Baum's book to props from recent adaptations. You can follow a tour of the museum with a glass of Aunt Em's Prairie Rosé from Oz Winery before seeing a show at the Columbian Theatre or the old Dutch-style windmill in Wamego City Park. If you plan your Wamego trip for April, you will be able to see the Dutch mill flanked by countless colorful flowers for the annual Wamego Tulip Festival.
Dodge City
With about 28,000 residents, Dodge City is a larger town, but still holds plenty of small-town charm. For much of its history, it was a small community that shot out an important niche in the American Old West. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Big Nose Kate are just some of the fierce figures that tramped around Dodge in the late 1800s. Modern tramps can learn about their predecessors at Boot Hill Museum, which sits on West Wyatt Earp Boulevard and contains more than 60,000 artifacts, including hundreds of guns. Surrounding the museum are other Western-themed haunts like The Cowboy Capital Saloon & Grill, Dodge City Historic Trolley Tours, and El Rodeo Bar & Grill, plus plenty of non-Western sites so you can get everything out of Dodge.
As proven by the offbeat art in Lucas, the Swedish architecture in Lindsborg, the massive geological formations near Scott City, the skyscraping grass around Cottonwood Falls, the Eisenhower estate in Abilene, the OZ Museum in Wamego, and the Wild West preserve of Dodge City, Kansas is not a flat, featureless region between more popular states. It is eminently worthy of a visit, especially to small towns. Have a can-do attitude for rural Kansas.
