Funky little Oberlin, 12 miles south of the Nebraska state line, is definitely worth a stop. A picture-postcard town, with awnings covering storefronts along the two blocks of redbrick downtown streets, it has a mini-cinema (called the Sunflower, of course) playing Hollywood hits, and a Social Realist sandstone statue of a pioneering family marking its northern edge.
The peace and quiet of today’s Oberlin is in stark contrast to its past: Oberlin was the site of the last Indian raid in Kansas on September 29, 1878, after a fierce skirmish had erupted between Chief Dull Knife’s Northern Cheyenne, heading to regain their lands in the Dakotas, and an infantry contingent from Fort Dodge at what is today Lake Scott State Park, near Scott City 80 miles to the south. The Oberlin cemetery contains a memorial to the 19 settlers who were killed in Cheyenne attacks, and the town has the late-September Mini-Sapa Days, a two-day festival commemorating the event. Downtown along S. Penn Avenue, the worthwhile Decatur County/Last Indian Raid Museum (closed Mon.; $3; 785/475-2712) has eight preserved buildings, including a sod house.
