Venture far enough south in Kansas, as native son Thomas Fox Averill says, and town names tend to illustrate hope or contrast more than they reflect reality. Garden City appears parched, and Liberal leans conservative, the Topeka author observes.
An exception is little Greensburg, about 110 miles west of Wichita on U.S. Highway 54, where emerald rebirth sprouts from wind-swept tragedy. The Big Well, the world’s largest hand-dug water hole at 109 feet deep and 32 feet round, was about the only reason to visit until 2007.
That’s when a tornado — 1.7 miles wide with gusts up to 250 mph — demolished 95 percent of the city and killed 11. The average twister spans 50 yards and blows 100 mph or less.
“We’re a tornado town that rebuilt, but in reality we’re a brand new town,” said Ruth Ann Wedel, a former teacher and retailer.
Many of the 1,400 residents moved instead of rebuilding, but the 800 who remain are turning Greensburg into a model of environmental sustainability. Inside a silo-shaped house is one unit of bed-and-breakfast lodging and the starting point for eco tours that last an hour to a full day.
Wedel, as site manager for the nonprofit Greensburg GreenTown, leads these tours and speaks frankly about her conservative community, which has proud and deep Christian roots.
“Sustainability is labeled as a liberal thing,” she acknowledged, “but for us it’s just the right thing.”
So far eight new buildings — from a farm-equipment dealership to an arts center, a hospital to a K-12 public school — have earned platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design awards, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest rating. Several other structures earned gold or silver LEED awards or await certification.
Wedel asserts no other city in the world per capita has more LEED-certified buildings, but visitors arrive with erroneous presumptions about what they’ll see.
“We’re not a Space Age town,” and sometimes traditional-looking buildings are environmentally sustainable in subtle ways. In the library are shelves of bamboo. The school bleachers are recycled plastic milk jugs. All electricity comes from wind energy.
Storm chasers and others want to hear about the tornado too, and the locals oblige with tornado photos and artifacts at The Big Well. Above the well is a new museum designed like a funnel cloud, and people walk the spiral staircase underground, to view the well, which rates as one of the eight wonders of Kansas.
The Big Well opened as an attraction in 1937, and Stacy Barnes, tourism director for the Big Well Museum & Visitor Information Center, draws parallels between this piece of history and Greensburg’s resurrection. “The well is such a testament to pioneer perseverance,” she said, and post-tornado work tests fortitude in another way.
Hunter’s Drug Store didn’t survive the tornado, but the much-loved soda fountain was rescued and moved into a new local history museum, where phosphates and ice cream sodas again are sold.
Open since mid-June is the Red Tractor, a farm-to-table restaurant whose key vendors include local meat producers and a hydroponic farm. Chef-owner Tod Barlow is a Kansas City native who promises “big-city food with small-town comfort.”
Wedel calls Barlow a success story that “appeals to our vision to bring more young people here but still maintain our identity.” Another is Mike McBeath of Phoenix, a website developer who relocated to Greensburg.
“I came as a volunteer to build homes and fell in love with the place,” McBeath said “I had to make it my own.”
“I’m a believer,” Wedel said. “I don’t think anything happens by accident. God has his hands on us” and is guiding the community in a new direction.
Well, not completely new: All eight churches in Greensburg were rebuilt. Some things they didn’t leave behind.
Mary Bergin is a freelance reporter.
If you go
Guided eco tours are $5 per person per hour. Self-guided tours are an option. An overnight at the GreenTown Silo Eco Home costs $110 for two people, including breakfast. 620-723-2790, http://www.greensburggreentown.org The home is one of several built after the tornado to withstand such winds if another storm comes again.
Admission to The Big Well is $8 (less for children and seniors). 620-723-4102, http://www.bigwell.org
