![]() ![]() Because of volunteers like Rex, Kansas has some of the best statistics available, and they go back decades. The most important lessons came from experts like Rex Buchanan, the former director of the Kansas Geological Survey, who for years has braved January weather to drop steel tapes down sometimes remote wells to physically measure water levels. By following the Arkansas River from its headwaters at the Continental Divide above Leadville, Colorado, all the way to the Oklahoma line below Arkansas City, I learned a few things. I wrote about this in my book, “Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River,” published by the University Press of Kansas. Because of irrigation and other factors, the river has been dry since the late 1970s. An ATV races along the dry bed of the Arkansas River at Dodge City. It’s a legal absurdity that sums up our state’s complicated relationship to water. The Arkansas is one of three legally navigable rivers in the state (the other are the Kaw and the Missouri), but you’d have a hard time getting a boat down it now. ![]() The river is nothing but hard-pack sand and tire tracks, from the four-wheelers that tear up and down the old channel. If you (carefully!) make your way past the wire and barricades at Wright Park you can see what has become of it. ![]() The Arkansas River also runs through Dodge City. It’s on the south side of Highway 50, between avenues L and M. An Eagle Scout named Michael Snapp determined the location, with the help of GPS, and in 2007 planted a 600-pound limestone post to mark the spot. There’s a marker at the old railway depot, but the line is really a few blocks to the east. Just look for Dodge City, in the lower western third of the state. You can find it easily on a map of Kansas. The meridian traditionally marks the line where the west begins and agriculture is difficult without irrigation. Out past the 100th meridian things get dry damned quick. ![]()
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