On the road: Abandoned Manter school
In Manter, Kansas, just over the Colorado border in the southwest corner of the Sunflower State, the only paved road is U.S. 150, which parallels railroad tracks and grain silos.
The dusty roads and abandoned school tell the story of shrinking rural population in Kansas.
“Farm consolidation in Kansas was a process inherently linked to urban concentration, embedded into the general transformation of rural America,” according to the Kansas Policy Review, a publication of the Institute for Policy & Social Research. “In 50 years, the number of farms declined more than 50 percent, while their average size doubled. The farm population of the state declined from almost 500,000 to less than 100,000.”
In 1930, Manter had 224 people, according to the U.S. Census. In 2010, it had 171.
Down one dirt road you can find the U.S. Post Office by the words painted on the plate-glass window. Farther along, the Manter water tower is visible through tall trees.
A little farther and you see the school, a beautiful brick façade with lovely art-deco tiles over the windows and doors. The sign in front is missing so many letters that you would be hard-pressed to know that it was a high school. Trees that once shaded the walkways are now lifeless stumps. Peeking through the window of the auditorium, you see the worn hardwood of the basketball court. Gym shoes have not been heard there since 1974.