Kipp, KS

Though just a short drive from Salina and despite boasting a Great Plains manufacturing facility, Kipp appears to be clinging onto life like so many other Kansan towns.

Kipp, an unincorporated town southeast of Salina, KS.

Former church converted into someone's home.

"Stay out!"  

For some reason, this looks like the sort of place someone's grandmother would live.  Perhaps it's the pink trim, planter boxes and the garland around the bright yellow fence.

The main street of Kipp.

This crazy cat entertained us with his antics.  Apparently he was after a bird. 

The old railroad grade extends off into the distance.  Too bad the trains no longer run and too bad this wasn't converted into a hiking/biking trail. There are signs (not seen in the photos) warning off would be interlopers, but I can't really blame the property owners-- often ATVs will use these old grades to access fields and to generally raise hell.

A Great Plains facility in the old school.

As always, I think about the good and bad times that made this place a home once upon a time.  

Pedestrian bridge decorated with Christmas lights in the remnants of an abandoned park at the eastern edge of town.

Battered remains of the outhouse in the former park near the pedestrian bridge.  It's amazing to me how nice small towns used to be before people could just escape in the cars to the mall.  I wonder why and when the town gave up on this place-- was it when Kipp went unincorporated?  In any case, there are few things more depressing to me than abandoned parks.  Often, even the most moribund locales still maintain some kind of park or playground.  Alas, not Kipp.

A thriving little town of Saline county, is located on the line between Solomon and Eureka townships, and on the Missouri Pacific R. R. about 11 miles southeast of Salina, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 150.
From: Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc.; edited by Frank W. Blackmar, A. M. Ph. D.; In Two Volumes, Illustrated; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912, Volume II