Matfield Green
By IRIS DAVIS
Contributing writer
April is Kansas burn season. The dead grass, weeds, and woody undergrowth of prairie grasslands in the Flint Hills are burned away to beckon new shoots. Nature's recycling process. What used to be accomplished by nature with lightning is now assisted by human hands.
This renewal of dead grass to nutrient-rich young shoots has fattened millions of cows. It still does. This gustatory relationship of cattle to tallgrass prairie cultivated Kansas settlement. Some of these communities expanded into cities large enough to raise a university. Others remained unpretentious hamlets in which to raise a child.
While a number of these communities still prosper, continuing to burn the tallgrass prairie to ensure its future growth, others have faded into the smoky haze of our heritage.
One town receding into that haze is Matfield Green. What was once a thriving community — one of the biggest cattle shipping towns — is now a potent reminder that progress doesn't always equal growth.
The drive into Matfield Green, on Kansas Scenic Byway 177, is a pleasant interlude from the hustle and bustle along I-35.
Amid blue-gray rolling hills peeking through the smoky haze from the recent burning of tallgrass prairie and the scattering of cross-cut creek beds — some filled with water — reveals an irregular, rocky surface contradicting the common misperception that Kansas is flat.
The surrounding fire-devoured tallgrass prairie smells like fireplace smoke, yet harsher. It's not the sweet smell of the family hearth, but rather the pungent odor of smoldering vegetation.
A sign warns telling all not to enter if a smoke cloud is present — pull to shoulder — an awareness that more than vegetation is at risk.
The road is clear enough for travel, although the haze covering the fields on either side of the winding road suggest the closeness of the burn region. The quiet, upward hazy current of smoke greeting the partly cloudy sky belie the recent conflagration.
After a time long enough to wonder when signs of civilization would reappear, an unadorned small green sign announces Matfield Green. If it wasn't eagerly anticipated, it would have been missed entirely.
In the town of Matfield Green is a smattering of buildings — consigned to fate — sprinkled alongside the road. Most are wood frame, many are weatherworn, a few brick.
A fraction of these once were businesses surrounded by cars spilling out occupants who exchanged their hard-earned currency for goods, services, and camaraderie.
Now, they stand abandoned with only the reminiscence of a lively yesteryear keeping them upright.
These mournful sights creep into your field of vision as you whirr past at 40 mph.
Turning back around to confirm that was indeed the town, another small green road sign modestly announces Matfield, followed by a second, larger sign that unabashedly tongue-in-cheek lists five exits, substantiating that this handful of time-weary buildings is mostly all there is to the town.
There is currently only one business still open in the town these days — Belles Hitchin' Post — a cowboy bar and café.
The Hitchin' Post serves as the local eatery and as the local community center, says owner Susan Smith.
"The area and local people need a place to eat," she adds.
Smith, who bought the establishment eight months ago, also says that folks use the Hitchin' Post as a stopping off and meeting place. It's not just a place to eat; it serves a community function.
It has to because the only other gathering place isn't a business — it's a church.
"It would be nice if something else was here," says Smith, "but I doubt it will happen with this economy."
So for now, that something is Smith and her restaurant. Smith says her biggest challenge is hosting the Motorcycle Sunday lunch, where between 100 to 150 bikers show up hungry.
It wasn't always like this, says Adelbert "Del" Armstrong, 88.
"It was quite a village," he adds, folding his hands inside the bib of his slightly stained striped overalls.
Armstrong, sporting a shock of white hair and a scattering of wrinkles on his cheerful face, is a long time-resident of Matfield Green. He attended grade school and high school here and has lived in the same house for 50 years.
When he was a kid, says Armstrong, Matfield Green was home to four filling stations, two grocery stores, a hotel with a fine restaurant called the Green Lantern, a railroad depot, hardware store, blacksmith and livery, barbershop, post office, telephone office, and a creamery.
Back in those days, according to Armstrong, road traffic and parking spaces were full with a multitude of horse-drawn buggies and wagons, Maxwell automobiles, and Model-Ts.
"On Saturday night, you couldn't find a place to park," says Armstrong. "Not so now."
"There used to be lots of people," he adds.
Now, 48 people live here in Matfield Green.
"Significant vacancy occurs, particularly in western Kansas," says Dale Yeager, rural development manager for the Iola office of the Kansas Rural Development Council, "from declining populations due to out-migration and an aging population."
An economic development program, like the Community Development Block Grant Program run by the Kansas Department of Commerce, can provide assistance with infrastructure and community outreach services to make a community viable and hold onto the population, adds Yeager.
Currently, most of the population of Matfield Green is retired folks, like Armstrong, long-time residents native to the area. Some of the residents are ranchers or farmers. A few who aren't drive to Wichita or Emporia for work.
A retired police officer — 30 years at the Wichita Police Department — Armstrong owns a modest house with a chain-link fence surrounding yard and driveway, keeping two large, tail-wagging dogs from licking visitors silly.
Armstrong owns the small red barn next door as well, where every evening he feeds a half-dozen cats, even if some go by the name "Stinky" and have more in common with Pepe Le Peu.
According to Armstrong, one night a family of skunks — a mother and her babies — came to eat side-by-side from the same bowls with the cats. The skunk family visited for many weeks until one day a couple of raccoons wanted in the action.
The skunks haven't been back since. Most folks would be glad to see them go.
One skunk, which he really did name Stinky, says Armstrong with a far-away look, became tame enough to sit on his lap and demand petting.
Armstrong used to own another house that he sold to his son Ronnie, who recently finished up a term as mayor of Matfield Green. Armstrong also owned an old lumberyard that he donated to the Land Institute.
The Land Institute, based in Salina, performs research, provides graduate fellowships, and gives public presentations on sustainable prairie agriculture, termed natural systems agriculture.
Ken Warren, manager for the institute, says that the lumberyard and the house on the site — bought at a tax sale by the institute — serve as housing for students and presentation attendees.
The institute also has been remodeling the abandoned former elementary school.
"We have remodeled [the school] at considerable expense," says Warren. "It provides a place — in a unique setting — as a meeting site."
The institute, adds Warren, acts as a bit of an industry for the town because folks who come for meetings eat locally.
Although the Land Institute adds to the economic viability of Matfield Green, it isn't enough to revitalize the town, or to attract significant industry to the area.
Developing rural entrepreneurship where individuals expand or create new ways to develop income, says Carol Gould, director for the Kansas Center for Rural Initiatives, is the primary strategy likely to be successful for towns like Matfield Green.
It also is the method presently emphasized by the Kansas Department of Commerce for economic renewal of rural communities.
"It is unlikely that Matfield Green will attract a business or firm," says Gould. "Instead, they will have to 'grow their own' and they have a history of [doing] that."
However, Matfield Green will need to position itself and take the initiative to be part of any assistance programs, such as the Hometown Competitiveness program developed by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, adds Gould.
Although the town hasn't yet taken the initiative to benefit from any of these programs, there is an effort to publicize the town and to commemorate its railroad history.
In the past, Matfield Green has hosted "Matfield Green Railroad Days," celebrating the railroad history of the town and of Chase County. This year, the event will take place in September on the grounds of the remodeled schoolhouse.
While the town celebrates the innovative spirit that brought the railroad to the West and the indomitable spirit of the people who forged a living off this land, maybe there also will be cause for celebration that this same indefatigable drive will spawn a yearning to tackle the economic frontier ensconcing Matfield Green before this rural town becomes another of Kansas' ghost towns.
Davis is a graduate student at Wichita State University.
