The Little Kansas City With Captivating Architecture And A Historic Downtown For A Quiet Getaway

In a rural area of southeast Kansas lies an unassuming town that's an off-the-beaten-path destination for travelers seeking interesting architecture, unique museums, and photo-worthy murals. The town of Chanute, Kansas, isn't a typical tourist spot, but, situated along the Neosho River and surrounded by farmland, it offers a quiet respite from everyday life.

The best of Chanute can be experienced during a day trip to rural Neosho County. Travelers often travel from the closest metropolitan areas, which are Wichita, 100 miles to the west, and Topeka, a bustling and wildly underrated Kansas city found 111 miles to the north. A car is necessary to get to the small town. Summer offers the most options for activities; the town hosts a "Cruise Night" every third Friday during the season, during which people are encouraged to drive, or "cruise," their cars down Main Street. A local farmers market is held every Tuesday evening in the summer.

Like another under-the-radar Kansas city with riverside charm, Chanute celebrates its historical ties to a famous aviator. The town was established as a settlement in 1870 and named in honor of French immigrant Octave Chanute, a civil engineer and aviation pioneer. As chief engineer for a railroad expanding into southeast Kansas, Chanute visited the region in the mid-1800s and suggested the incorporation of a town where the railroad could go through. Area settlers agreed and named their newly formed municipality after him. This history and more information about the town's early days are celebrated at the Chanute Historical Museum, located south of the historic Santa Fe Railroad depot.

While visiting Chanute, it's easy to glimpse an homage to the town's namesake — a sculpture of his glider can be spotted from Main Street. Chanute was fascinated by flight, and in 1896 he tested a glider that was the most significant aeronautical structure of the time. The "Chanute glider" became the starting point for Wilbur and Orville Wright's own designs. Chanute and the brothers became friends, and the sculpture in the town of Chanute honors all three men.

History buffs will enjoy Chanute for its preservation of historical architecture, as well as its various sites that detail the town's history. Surprisingly for a town of fewer than 9,000 people, it's home to three museums and an art gallery, four properties on the National Register of Historic Places, and several impressive structures built by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s and '40s.

The downtown Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum tells the story of the couple, described by the museum as "Kansans with Kodaks," who explored Africa, the South Seas, and Borneo in the early 20th century. The well-reviewed museum contains artifacts from the couple's travels. "Fascinating bit of history," wrote one visitor on Google Reviews. "If you are a doer, this place is inspirational."

Katy Park should be among the stops on a historical tour of Chanute. Here, visitors can explore Katy Stadium, a baseball park built as a WPA project in 1936 and the former home field of several minor league teams. Another public park in town, Santa Fe Park, is now home to Austin Bridge, a bowstring arch bridge built in 1872 over the Neosho River. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s and moved to Santa Fe Park in 1999 to become part of a hiking and biking path.

Visitors can stay overnight in another structure on the national register: the Tioga Inn, a 54-room hotel built in 1929. At six stories tall, it dominates the Chanute skyline.

Travelers interested in small-town oddities will find delights in Chanute. Though it isn't a town located smack dab in the middle of America, let alone the world, Chanute commissioned a mural in the center of a downtown intersection to commemorate the time a Google employee from Chanute set the town as the default location of Google Earth.

This piece of peculiar history is on display at the intersection of Main Street and Lincoln Avenue. The inspiration for the Center of Google Earth Mural came from Google software developer Dan Webb and was painted in 2010, when the town was vying for a residential fiber internet project. As it's in the middle of a road, this particular mural can be difficult to photograph. But another mural celebrating the town, found on the side of a building at 3 W. Main Street, is a popular photoshoot location.

During your time in Chanute, make space in your itinerary to visit Cardinal Drug Store, an independent pharmacy. Like any small town trying to entertain visitors who want to hearken back to simpler times, Chanute is home to an old-fashioned soda fountain inside the pharmacy that serves up sodas, shakes, and malts.