Junction City, Kansas: The Geographical Center of the 48 Continguous States

When we drove to Kansas for a family party, we were planning on staying at a hotel on Fort Riley. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so we stayed at a hotel in nearby Junction City.

Founded in 1858, Free Staters settled here from New York and Cincinnati. They selected this particular spot because the river was too low to take them to their destination. Junction City sits at the crossing of the Smoky Hills and Republican Rivers, hence the name. It was thought to be in the exact center of the continental United States...but it's not! So their nickname is incorrect.

In 1853, Fort Riley was established to protect travelers on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. This is the garrison at Fort Riley. This is where our nephew and his wife are stationed.

The buildings on the Army post are pretty cool. This is the pokie. There's no signage but it's the only building I saw on post with barred windows. A lot of these buildings are from the 1800's when the post was first built. That is so cool!

Junction City is the county seat of Geary County. This is the courthouse. It was built in 1900 and, in 1994, went through a thorough renovation. It was rededicated on its 100th anniversary. 

There's a Heritage Park in the center of town. They have a Civil War Memorial. I'm used to driving around southern towns in Texas so most of the Civil War monuments that I see are from the Confederate perspective. It's nice to see one from the Union perspective.

The town has tons of cool old buildings like this one. This is the Rialto Building. We all had dinner at Bella's restaurant while we were there. Their kitchen closes at 8pm...on a Friday night! The building was erected around the turn of the century but nobody seems to know what the "Rialto" on the face of the building means or refers to.

This is the George Smith Public Library. George Smith was a wealthy resident of Junction City who made his money in real estate. According to the sign, he was suffering from a terminal illness and shot himself in 1905. He left $75K and 4000 books for a public library. The building was erected and the library opened in 1908. It relocated to a more modern building in 1983 (which I personally think is a shame). It was purchased by a finance company called Central of Kansas for use as their headquarters.

This is the Opera House from the front. It opened in 1882. Then in 1898 it was ravaged by fire. It was rebuilt and functions today as a live theater.

The Opera House from the side. I would love to go in and check it out! 

This is the Geary County Historical Museum. It's open Tues- Sat, 1 -4 and it's free. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit but it looked pretty interesting.

Junction City was a cool little town. About 22K people live there and it caters to the soldiers at Ft. Riley. They have several fast food chains but no chain restaurants outside of I-HOP. For grocery stores, they have a Walmart and an Aldi. Dillons is the local grocery store and that's part of Kroger.

The civilian sector of Fort Riley is the biggest employer followed by the city and county. There's a food processing plant nearby and a Michelin manufacturing plant as well.

Another interesting factoid: Timothy McVeigh - the OKC bomber - rented the Ryder truck that he used in the bombing from an auto shop here in Junction City.

I liked this little town. I don't know that I could live here. It was very quiet and by 8 pm on Friday night everything was closed. 

Still, don't take my word for it! Check it out.