The Geographical Center of the Forty-Eight States

Marker made of native Kansas stone

The view east from the geographical center

The chapel and a pleasant place to picnic or sit for a while.

This was my second visit to the Geographical Center of the Forty-eight states.  Some would say there is not much there:  There is a small chapel dedicated to the memory of Elmer and Zeta Stump.  There are picnic tables, a shelter, benches and a small outdoor grill.  There are a couple of markers, most notably one made of native Kansas stone.  There is a small motel that appears to be unoccupied, but kept up.  The place is so nice, atop a prairie hill.


What I like most is looking down the road leading east, a two-lane asphalt road that follows the contour of the land, up and over undulating hills across the prairie.


I stand at the little park that seems mowed and tended and cared for, and know that at every distant direction there are traffic jams on the freeway, crowds shouting at the ball game, jet engines roaring, loud music, mud-slinging politicians, commercials trying to seduce us with triple cheeseburgers and worse, frantic buying and selling of securities, worries about deadlines, all that stuff.


Here at the center there is quiet, except for the song of birds and the prairie wind.


It is good to know that at the middle of this country there is a quiet center.