February '92
It's my understanding that this was a famous landmark to settlers travelling west on the Smoky Hill Trail. In western Kansas, an object only a few feet high can be seen for miles! (Note: in 2001, someone contacted me to say that a part of this formation has now fallen off. I haven't confirmed it myself.)
Don't ever believe the cliche that Kansas is "boring". To me, these chalk formations of west Kansas are even more remarkable than the Pawnee Buttes. They're not nearly as large as Colorado's buttes, but they're so much further east - way out in the middle of the High Plains. Maybe they were once orphans of nearby mesas - but the mesas are gone now. Now these formations are just out there alone, completely surrounded by the flatness of the Smoky Hill River basin.
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