Swedes and conquistadors in central Kansas

 

Views from Coronado Heights

Despite trying to get off Interstate 70 in Kansas, the travel apps showed little regard for paved roads. 

The maps continuously tried to route me down every muddy road in the Smoky Hills. I wasn’t willing to test whether I could save four minutes or waste hours getting towed back to pavement. 

I might have stopped at Kanopolis State Park, with its ample reservoir and cliffs rising above the Smoky Hill River. I couldn’t hit Mushroom Rocks State Park either. I stopped for a few minutes at the Czech town of Wilson but most places were closed. I had visited Wilson before, but the Swedish town of Lindsborg would be new to me. Somehow I beat the clock in reaching Lindsborg. 

While Wilson has a few Czech flourishes (the world’s largest Czech-style egg, for one), Lindsborg has doubled down successfully on its Little Sweden USA nickname. 

Main Street Lindsborg

While a pretty small town (less than 4,000 residents), Lindsborg firmly embraces its Swedish heritage. Numerous tourist shops sell Swedish goods; even the local grocery store has an end-cap of imported Swedish candies and chocolates. Bethany College is among Kansas’ oldest colleges (founded 1881). 

Beyond the college came lively Main Street, which is not the typical Main Street found across the Great Plains. Buildings are painted in vivid colors, including the town hall. 

A number of coffeehouses lie along Main Street, including Blacksmith Coffee Shop & Roastery, which restored an 1870s blacksmith shop, one of the town’s oldest buildings. Dala horses pinted by dozens of area artists stand along Main Street. Many families have them in their front yards, with some residents also posting signs noting their Swedish surnames. 

There were only a few restaurants with Swedish cuisine, and the drive started early enough for one. Crown and Rye only serves brunch on Sundays. As much as I hate going to a restaurant right before closing, I went for it. I even asked the hostess if it was okay; she checked with the kitchen staff and said go ahead. Little Sweden or not, I was back in realm of the Midwest friendliness. 

Worth the 6 a.m. departure.

 I couldn't decided between Swedish pancakes with lingonberry reduction and Swedish meatballs with noodles and cream sauce, and . Too much food for one meal, but the waitress noted that both reheat well. I agreed, eating some of both, then getting a dinner and breakfast from the leftovers. I was back on the street by closing time. 

Many local attractions close on Sunday, including the Old Mill and Swedish History Museum, which includes the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion, which was relocated from the fairgrounds in St. Louis. I stopped for a drink at Ole Stuga (Swedish for ale house), one of the few bars and had a pale ale that a Dodge City brewery crafted solely for the bar. The bar staff was friendly as everyone else in the place focused exclusively on the Kanas City Chiefs game. 

 Lindsborg sits adjacent the historic footnote much older than the 1860s-1870s homesteading era. The Smoky Hills run northwest of town, and a stone castle tops the tallest. 

The mesa known as Coronado Heights is the likely endpoint of the Spanish conquistadors first expedition deep into the Great Plains. Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, driven by stories of the Cities of Cibola (now referred to as the Seven Cities of Gold), mounted his 1541 expedition that extended out of Mexico and into Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. 

By Kansas, Coronado had sent much of his expedition home, reducing his forces to a scouting party that mostly encounter thatch-hut farming communities until he reached one called Quivira, which was likely in the Smoky Hill Valley. No one knows for sure if he stood on this mesa, but the story bears some logic. 

A man waiting for his granddaughter to run through the castle told me the local story. With the mesa’s 360-degree views of the plains, this was the hill to climb if you wanted to survey the horizon for cities of gold. Seeing none, Coronado headed back to Mexico, his expedition a failure, . 

I originally wanted to wait until morning, but the thin clouds at golden hour allowed the landscape some unique light. Once I saw the castle from Lindsborg, choice no longer played a role. 

The stone castle came to Coronado Heights during the Great Depression as a Works Progress Administration. Many decades ago, I saw the castle and Coronado Heights in a Readers Digest travel book that later became a personal travel bible. It changed my perception of what Kansas could look like. 

Standing atop Coronado Heights and enjoying some late-day solitude deepened my feeling for the Sunflower State. A few hours after the wonderful golden hour atop Coronado Heights, a rainstorm rolled in and parked above central Kansas for the next 24 hours. 

Whether or not Coronado once overlooked the same verdant country, the views from the mesa brought fresh perspectives on Kansas.

More from Coronado Heights.