A Place to Visit
Post Rock Country
Russell County, Kansas
In north-central Kansas, fence posts made of limestone dot the landscape. Split from a layer in the Greenhorn Limestone formation called the Fencepost limestone, stone posts were used by settlers on a treeless prairie beginning about 1880. The Fencepost limestone was also quarried for building stone for numerous churches, business buildings, courthouses (Ellis, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Osborne, and Russell counties), barns, and homes. This abandoned house near Bunker Hill used Fencepost limestone for the foundation, porch, lintels, and sills (the lighter colored stone). Other limestone layers in the Greenhorn were used for the walls. A stone fence post is in the foreground. To see this house, outcrops of the Greenhorn Limestone, and the red sandstones of the Dakota Formation, take the scenic backroad from Bunker Hill to Wilson Lake Dam. From I-70 take the Bunker Hill exit (exit 193) two miles north, and then turn east on Anspaugh Road. Travel Anspaugh Road about four miles in a northeasterly direction until it intersects Shoreline Road (called South Shore Drive on some maps). Follow Shoreline Road to its intersection with Kansas Highway 232 just two miles south of the dam, or about five miles north of the Wilson exit on I-70 (exit 206).
Kansas Geological Survey
1930 Constant Avenue, Campus West
Lawrence, Kansas
66047-3726
(785) 864-3965
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Tom Collinson, Chair, Pittsburg
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Robert Crangle, Lincoln
- David J. Heinemann, Topeka
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Dyan Jones, Prairie Village
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Sheila Leiker-Page, Victoria
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Jeffrey Mason, Goodland
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Dennis McKinney, Greensburg
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Stephen Morris, Hugoton
- David Nance, Pittsburg
- Marvin Odgers, Sublette
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Larry J. Richardson, Wichita
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John K. Strickler, Manhattan
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William W. Hambleton, Emeritus Member, Lawrence
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A. Scott Ritchie, KU Geology Assoc. Rep., Wichita
Director: Lee C. Gerhard
The mission of the Kansas Geological Survey, operated by the University of Kansas in connection with its research and service program, is to conduct geological studies and research and to collect, correlate, preserve, and disseminate information leading to a better understanding of the geology of Kansas, with special emphasis on natural resources of economic value, water quality and quantity, and geologic hazards.
The Geology Extension program furthers the mission of the KGS by developing materials, projects, and services that communicate information about the geology of Kansas, the state's earth resources, and the products of the Kansas Geological Survey to the people of the state
Online February 10, 2003
Comments to: lbrosius@kgs.ku.edu
Kansas Geological Survey
URL:http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/GeoRecord/1999/vol5.1/Page4.html