Welcome to Woodbine, Kansas, population 170—give or take a goldfish or three.
This small burg on the very far eastern edge of Dickinson County, Kansas, turned 130 years old last year. It’s been at times a booming agricultural hub, a railroad town and most recently a bedroom community for the Junction City/Fort Riley population.
But I just call it home.
And, despite the ups and downs of changing economies, population statistics and school district consolidations, you can count on the people of Woodbine to figure out how to keep the lights on and the milk cold.
Mary Sue Roller is the current mayor of Woodbine. She leads a City Council that has taken an innovative approach to keeping Woodbine an ideal little community in which to raise a family.
“We just keep hanging in there,” Roller said with a small chuckle. She won’t brag, but the town is doing more than hanging in there. It’s looking to the future needs of its citizens and creating value for those who live there.
“Well, the most recent really big deal is that we have a new to us city building,” Roller said. She’s right, this is a big deal for Woodbine, because as far back as living memory, there’s never been a true “city hall.” Years ago the late Ken Stout, the local banker, used to allow the City Council to meet in the basement of the bank, she explained.
“Now, where else do you know of that the banker would leave the bank unlocked, at night, for people to come and go to a city council meeting in the basement and not worry?” Roller asked. Besides a meeting space, though, the records of the city also never had a permanent home.
“Well, whoever was elected city clerk would agree to have the metal filing cabinet with the city records in their private home,” Roller explained. Some towns pass a gavel, Woodbine is the only place I know that has an entire filing cabinet to move. But all that is now housed in the City Hall on the northwest corner of the town in a repurposed building that was once an auto body repair garage and then a small convenience store.
Finding new purposes in existing infrastructure is a hallmark of Woodbine. Roller explained that the new water tower on the western edge of town, which was built in the late 1990s, turned out to be just the right height for some businesses to put their communications antennae.
“We found there are companies that need that height and so we leased it out to them and brought in an income that didn’t exist before,” Roller said. That’s put Woodbine in a good financial position, unlike similar sized towns. In recent years Woodbine has upgraded the city water and sewer system, and the local Tri-County Telephone Association installed high speed fiber optic cables to the town. Roller said there’s hopes that this makes buying a home in Woodbine attractive to young professionals who choose to work remotely from their home offices.
“We have great internet speeds, which could be an attractive thing for businesses and business owners who don’t have to be in the larger city,” Roller said.
Because Woodbine is 30 minutes from nearby Fort Riley, the population tends to rise and fall based on the numbers of troops stationed there.
“We have a housing development that we put in about 10 years ago the last time everyone thought Fort Riley would grow,” Roller said. “The infrastructure is there for about 35 to 40 homes, although there are just two homes there currently. But, everything is set so that people could buy lots and build and for it to not be a hardship on the town.”
The “downtown” of Woodbine is pretty active for a community its size, and that bodes well for housing prices in the community today and in the future. There’s a new firehouse for the rural volunteer fire department, along with the U.S. Post Office and the Citizens State Bank and Trust. The Agri Trails Coop just put in two huge concrete grain bins, a vast improvement for the area farmers, Roller said.
A most recent development has been a few blocks over, with the new construction of the headquarters for the locally owned and operated KVK Inc., a heating and air conditioning business. Roller said that shows that there are growth possibilities for businesses in the town that serve a wide swath of the community.
And while we may have lost our café, we now have the little “Our Store,” a grocery store that serves the needs of the community that Thomas and Tamara Blake opened almost six years ago. The couple wanted to offer neighbors a place to get the essentials without having to drive 30 minutes to Walmart in Junction City or 20 minutes to the nearest grocery store in Herington. It’s a place to come for the small things like bread and milk and some canned goods, Blake said. But also on the shelves are local meats and other food items that provide community members a chance for added income.
“We have Hildebrand Farms milk, but we also sell lamb meat from Pat and Russ Brehm, and beef from Kelli and Marcus Cox,” Blake said. “And then we also have heritage Red Wattle pork that we raise.” The meat is processed at a small locker in Clay Center. And in the future the Blakes hope to have a small greenhouse and garden in the back of the store where they can raise some produce year-round and sell it in the store.
Blake said just having a place for older community members to turn for groceries is something he’s happy to provide for the community. But seeing the younger generation come through the doors is pretty neat too.
“One thing that brings us joy is when kids can walk or ride their bikes here to the store and get their candy or their pop or whatever,” Blake said. “The kids are able to do that here in this town, when so many other towns kids just can’t hop on their bikes and go grab a popsicle.”
As much as things change, they still stay the same.
The Jolly Jayhawkers 4-H Club still meets once a month, making the best better.
The Woodbine United Methodist Church still rings its bells every Sunday morning to gather worshippers. And the Woodbine Lions Club and the fire department make sure every July 4 includes a big, booming, beautiful fireworks display.
And every day of the week you’ll find the people of Woodbine coming together to keep the lights on and the milk cold.
Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached at 620-227-1807 or [email protected].
Claim to fame
Woodbine was originally founded as Lyons, named for the nearby Lyon Creek. The creek was named for Gen. Nathaniel Lyon who discovered it while stationed as a captain, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, in the 1850s. Gen. Lyon was the first Union General to be killed in the Civil War.
