At the latest estimate, Kansas may have nearly 9,000 vanished, named communities. These places had many faces: small crossroads villages; depot mail drops on rail lines, lingering communities that coalesced around a church, rapidly-fading religious…
Gatesville was named for Lorenzo Gates, who settled on Mall Creek in the fall of 1857. There was a school, a post office, and a railroad, but no town was ever established, even though it was an essential hub for livestock shipping.
The author theorizes the name of "Swamp Angel" and its possible settlement by its remaining un-incorporated houses, grain silo and railroad tracks located on the floodplain of the Kansas River.
The author uses an abbreviated journalistic approach to capture the story of the town of Alida, Kansas.
