Time in the Flint Hills

Clements Arch Bridge
Chase County, Kansas
2024 watercolor by
Gregory E. Larson

Time in the Flint Hills 

    Over time, the Flint Hills begins to pull you into its sphere of influence. Time Becomes an enigma. Sometimes while wandering the cow paths along the streams and rivers, you would think the clock has stopped ticking. Other times it seems to rush by like the trucks and trains that pass through the countryside.

    Recently, my friend, Mary Anne, and I sought out a place where, each in our own time and with other people, we had visited years ago. The early morning drive in June brought us to our destination: The Clements Arch Bridge. It is a historical stone bridge that crosses the Cottonwood River in Chase County, and was built to carry the wagon traffic in the late 19^th century. Today it connects a dead-end road with a farmer’s field, but the size and quality give it historical significance. We arrived as the early morning light was still low. The temperature was not yet unbearable and the air was beginning to feel like a real Kansas wind.

    I was there to take more pictures of the bridge and to consider doing a watercolor painting. While I rushed from one side of the bridge to the other to take multiple pictures on my phone, Mary Anne stood in the middle of the bridge and just soaked up the atmosphere. Time was rushing on and it was also standing still.

    Mary Anne decided to write a poem about the bridge. It is worthy of sharing and sums up the spot that pulled us in on that late spring day:

1888 Memories

by Mary Anne Demeritt

Cornflower blue sky over Clements Bridge

The summer solstice beckons

I pull up on the reins

The wagon halts

Down below the Cottonwood River

Meanders lazily

Prairie wind relentlessly whips

My hair and gingham bonnet

Cliff swallows swoop, dive, whistle

And pirouette in the humid air

The breath of the universe

Is not whispering - - but shouting

Insisting that I listen

To the elusive, fleeting

Nature of Time

    We drove to a few more spots that warranted taking photos, and I found a small building in Elmdale that I used for the watercolor shown below. There is always a new discovery around the bend.

Elmdale Facade
Elmdale, Kansas
2024 Watercolor by
Gregory E. Larson

Author's note:  The two watercolor paintings seen here have been selected for the prestigious 2024 Visions of the Flint Hills exhibit at the Buttonwood Art Space, 3013 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 from October 2nd to December 11th.