Providence, Kansas Ghost Town

For Sale, Providence Mineral Wells: 

In 1893, when A.A. Hyde, inventor and founder of Mentholatum of Wichita, advertized the sale of the Providence Mineral Wells in Providence, Kansas, one could have bought a hotel, 80 acres, and a mineral spring for $6,000. [Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine, 1893, Volume 21, Issue 2]


Nothing remains of the ghost town of Providence, Kansas, a city once located near the intersection of 230th Street south and Southwest Meadowlark, a few miles south of Rose Hill.

Detail, Butler County Atlas of 1887, Richland Township

How to get there.

Directions using Richland Township, Butler County Atlas 1887

In 1881, a post office was established at the city of Providence, Kansas. John Dunnell was appointed postmaster. His son, C.F. Dunnell, sank a well on the south side of the road to a depth of 142 feet and found water. The taste was a bit salty and bubbly, but rather than be dissuaded, Dunnell brought the water to the attention of A.A. Hyde of Wichita, Kansas. Hyde found the mineral water to have curative properties and formed the Providence Mineral Well Company. [Providence Mineral Wells — Providence, Butler County. A. A. Hyde, Providence Mineral Well Company. Extra Census Bulletin of the United States, May 23, 1891; Mineral Resources of the United States, 1893.] Hyde soon built a general store on the north side of the road. It was a two story building and Norman Hagar was the proprietor who lived on the second floor with his family. Eventually, a hotel, livery and blacksmith shop, drug store, confectionary, and several residences were built. The street was named Providence Row or Mineral Street. The town had its heyday during the Wichita boom of 1885-1886 when Hyde and others advocated a stay of a few weeks at the mineral spa. Land speculation caused a collapse in the Wichita economy in 1887, the same year the railroad came to Rose Hill. The economic collapsed persisted throughout the last decade. In the 1890’s Wichita would lose one third of its population and one half of its valuation. 

Read more in the History of Providence, Genealogy Trails


Hyde apparently had no takers on his 1893 advertisement to sell the mineral springs as he was still advertising in 1905 the curative properties of the mineral waters in the Wichita Eagle newspaper. And the Butler County Atlas of 1905 still shows Providence, but the city is past its prime. Nearby Rose Hill was on the railroad line. And the Oklahoma oil boom at the turn of the century lured dreamers onto other projects, and many of the buildings were put on wheels and driven away.

Butler County, 1905

 

Detail, Richland Township, 1905 Butler County Atlas

Polecat Creek Stone Bridge, Butler County, Kansas

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” - Henry David Thoreau

Polecat Creek Bridge 

People come to Polecat Bridge for many reasons. I come with my dog to walk the banks of Polecat creek, and occasionally to sit and read.

Catalpa trees with its elephantine leaves grow along the bank. In the early spring it produces beautiful white flowers that later become long seed pods. Walnut and Elm trees also loom overhead. Minnows swim in the creek and across the water skitter water striders, zig-zagging back and forth as the dog plays prances joyfully. It is quiet except for the occasional truck or car that comes roaring down the dirt road, slowing down to cross the bridge and kicking up a cloud of dust. This is a small price to pay to sit and read a book at Polecat Creek Bridge, a single span stone arch bridge, located five miles south of Rose Hill, Kansas then one and a half miles east on 230th street. C.C. Jamison

C.C Jamison

The bridge was built by C.C. Jamison, who at the age of 15 arrived in Kansas with his parents in 1875,  first settling Hutchinson, then in Pratt County, and finally in Augusta. Jamison became a contractor building several of the stone arch bridges of Butler County, Kansas. He built his first stone at the age of twenty-four, a 40 foot stone arch bridge, across Dry Creek, between Bruno and Augusta. History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney.

Providence, Kansas

A few hundred feet to the east, lies the ghost town of Providence, Kansas, a spa once famous for its mineral water. In 1873, a farmer dug a well and found the water strange to the taste and mineral water was discovered.

A. A. Hyde

A.A. Hyde the inventor of Mentholatum promoted the mineral water and built a hotel with ten rooms, a bath house and dining room. A general store was added across the street. Perhaps for this reason, the stone bridge was built.

The town and  hotel are documented in both the 1887 and 1905 Kansas Atlases of Butler County and Richland Township.

Kansas Atlas of 1887, Richland Township, Butler County, Providence, detail

Chisholm Trail 

I used to think of the Chishom trail as a well-worn path followed by herd after herd. Instead, the trail was like a reed blowing in the wind, following the grass where it was green and avoiding farmsteads that popped up throughout southern Kansas. Once upon a time the trail ran through Richland Township between Eight Mile and Polecat Creeks.

Old time settlers told tales that included Indians, prairie fires, and grasshopper. Read their stories in Mooney's book.