Paralleling the mainline Santa Fe Railroad across the flattest, emptiest 50 miles of Kansas cornfields, east of Dodge City we follow US-50 as far as Kinsley, where we switch onto US-56 (which used to be known as “US-50 North”) to follow the Santa Fe Trail. Kinsley, which calls itself “Midway USA,” lies equidistant from New York and San Francisco: 1,561 miles from either place. This geographical fact is pointed out by a large sign outside the entertaining (and free!) Edwards County Historical Museum, at the US-50/56 junction on the west side of town, surrounded by an old locomotive and a variety of old farming and ranching equipment.
