RV Fun Trips --- On the Road to Albuquerque ---

On the Road to Albuquerque
October 2002
Page 2

Greensburg to Liberal

Again we were traveling across very flat Kansas farmland. Occasionally a train would go by on the railroad tracks that ran parallel to the highway. After leaving Greensburg, it was a short distance when we saw sign signs and billboards that were advertising a famous attraction in Liberal, Kansas; the Dalton Gang Hideout.

I was looking forward to the visit as I had visited the Dalton Gang Hideout when I was about 10 years old. We found that even though the attraction is famous in the area, there was no crowd, as a result we had no trouble finding a place to park.

The Heritage House built around 1900

Before going to the hideout, we all went into the Heritage House. This is a restored circa 1900 house. I was surprised to find that we could just walk in. We had the free-run of the hallways with the contents of the house being protected by a pane of glass in doorways. The rooms are all furnished with period furniture. There is one feature I found interesting, every ground-floor room in the house had a door to the outdoors.

A living room from the early 1900s

From the Heritage House we walked around the corner and headed down the hill toward the hideout entrance. We walked in front of the farmhouse owned by the aunt of the Dalton brothers. When I visited this place as a boy, the house was the entrance to the attraction. After taking a couple of photos, we continued on down the hill.

Tom and Tina in front of a famous farm house — Photo by Nora

This is NOT the Dalton Gang

The entrance to the hideout is now through the barn, which now houses a small museum and gift shop. After paying a small entrance fee, a jail-style barred door was opened allowing us access to the gift shop and the escape tunnel. The walk through the tunnel wasn't very long before we came out in the farmhouse.

View of the grounds near the hideout — Photo by Nora

Once in the house, we took a self-guided tour around through the hallways very much like we did at the Heritage House. One room had some very old sewing machines on display behind windows. One of the old time machines looked similar to a convention sewing machine. However, it was much smaller and simpler than current machines. I've seen a lot of old sewing machines, but one was the oldest I've seen. It didn't look very much like a sewing machine to me.

A very old sewing machine — Patented 1850