Waterfall, Drury Kansas. Photo by Kathy Alexander.
Drury, Kansas, in Falls Township of Sumner County, is a small, unincorporated community. It is also a ghost town and officially an extinct town, as its post office is long closed.
Drury Mill, early 1900s.
Once known as the “Playground of Kansas & Oklahoma,” Drury got its start when the Drury dam and mill was built in 1883 on the natural flat rock shelf in the Chikaskia River. Built by the town’s founder, Alexander Culbertson, the town and the mill were named for his wife. The 2,300-pound burrs for the mill were imported from France, and wheat, corn, rye, and other grains were ground and turned into flour.
A post office was established on October 27, 1887.
In 1910, Drury was a station on the Kansas Southwestern Railway, had a money order post office, a flour mill, good local trade, and was a shipping point with a population of 28. At its peak, it also had a community church, a broom cornfield and factory, a grocery store, a hotel, and a school.
Kansas Southwestern Railway depot in Drury, Kansas.
After the intercontinental Meridian Road was established from Wichita south to Caldwell through Drury in about 1912, the village became a playground for city folks who wanted to take an afternoon’s drive or a weekend holiday. Driving from Oklahoma, Wichita, Caldwell, and other area towns, many stayed in the three-story, 46-room Drury Hotel or its cabins, enjoyed a boat ride on the Chikaskia River, swam, fished, drank at the “Merry-Go-Round” beer joint, danced at the Dance Pavillion, and watched movies projected onto a screen on a raft in the river. The resort also had a bathhouse and boathouse, and there was day and night bus service from Caldwell to Drury for vacationers. Others came by train.
In 1916, the grain mill became a power plant to supply electricity to the area.
Despite the tourism, the town itself did not grow, and its post office closed on August 31, 1921.
Flood waters rising around the Drury Hotel.
Two years later, on June 9, 1923, the town was devastated when heavy rains caused the river to rise. With many streams flowing into the Chikaskia River, it rose 21 feet. As residents and tourists watched from a high bank opposite the park, houses, cabins, and bridges, including the Iron Bridge, were destroyed. The elegant hotel floated off its cement foundation walls, rolled over on its side, broke into pieces, and floated down the river. A piano pushed through the roof of the dance pavilion as the unattached hardwood floor rose upward in the flooding. Livestock drowned, and crops were completely saturated. Afterward, the village ceased to draw tourists.
In 1926, Meridian Road became U.S. Highway 81, crossing 1,220 miles in the central United States.
Drury Mill and Dam, Drury, Kansas.
Unfortunately, the two-story mill burned to the ground when men left a smoldering rag in the building after smoking out bees to get honey.
Today, it is hard to imagine that Drury was once a booming little community. Not much is left except for several homes, a couple of old business buildings, and the old Stoney Point School. However, the river and dam waterfall continue to welcome fishermen, boaters, and campers at Drury Park. The park is located near the intersection of South Drury Road and West 175th Street South, next to the Chikaskia River.
Drury, Kansas, is located between South Haven and Caldwell near the intersection of S Drury Road and West 175th Street South.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated May 2024.
Abandoned Grocery Store in Drury, Kansas. Photo by Kathy Alexander.
Old Stony Point School in Drury, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.
Another abandoned business in Drury, Kansas. Photo by Kathy Alexander.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Sumner County
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, 1912.
Drury Dam
Kansas Travel
Sumner News
Sumner NewsCow
Wikipedia