Caney, Kansas: Not the place it used to be and running out of water

 

1950s picture postcard view

Headline:  Newsweek, 10/24/2023

Kansas is battling exceptional drought in 1.65 percent of the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor Map—the most severe drought classification by the U.S. Geological Survey. The worst of Kansas' drought is in the southern region, primarily in Elk, Montgomery and Chautauqua counties. The drought is currently so severe that Caney Valley Schools in Montgomery County are installing trailer restrooms for students to use to cut down on water usage, Fox 23 News reported.

Looks as though the situation has improved as the county is no longer classified as being in an exceptional drought.

The same cannot be said for the county's population, which decreased 19% during the 2010s. It peaked at 3,597 in 1910 and has since dropped 50%.   It now has about the same number of residents as it did 120 years ago.

Source:  Wikipedia (arrow added to map below)

Kansas Reflector, 10/30/2023

The stubborn drought that has hung over southeast Kansas for close to two years has brought Caney, a town of less than 2,000 people, within weeks of reaching the end of its water supply.  Without rain, Caney could run dry by Christmas. 

“This is the worst it’s been since any of us have been alive,” said City Manager Kelley Zellner.

Signs of the crisis are everywhere. 

At Eggbert’s, a diner at the edge of town, the price of bottled water is listed with the restaurant’s specials by the front door. Menus carry a notice that the staff can’t give out tap water. 

Cases of bottled water, donated by Walmart, sit in front of City Hall. There’s a portable bathroom trailer outside the junior and senior high school. And the town’s primary water source, the Little Caney River, is so low that the water that remains is stagnant. 

Downstream of the town, the riverbed is dry.