Arkansas River (Dodge City, Buffalo, Park: agriculture, park, charge)

[Those Who Squirm]

Is the Arkansas River usually or almost always dry in western KS? If so, has it always been that way?

I ask because I just finished listening to an audiobook about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and it happened to mention that Dodge City is on the Arkansas. I hadn't even known it was on a river at all, probably because that isn't how we typically picture towns of the Old West.

[Those Who Squirm]

ETA I should have mentioned: I happened to look up Dodge City in Google Earth and was surprised to find the river was completely dry.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

ETA I should have mentioned: I happened to look up Dodge City in Google Earth and was surprised to find the river was completely dry.

There is very little surface water at all in most of southwest Kansas within the Arkansas River basin due to profligate water mining of the Ogallala Aquifer via irrigation agriculture. Therefore, the water table is continually declining over time.

[Okey Dokie]

I’d like to point out that in spite of what you might see in a Western movie, there are no mountains near Dodge City, either. A pet peeve of mine.

[AnywhereElse]

https://kansasreflector.com/2021/07/...se-it-forever/

"The Arkansas River also runs through Dodge City. Or at least it used to. It’s been a dry bed now for decades. If you (carefully!) make your way past the wire and barricades at Wright Park you can see what has become of it. The river is nothing but hard-pack sand and tire tracks, from the four-wheelers that tear up and down the old channel."

Southwest KS has severe drought conditions also.

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-04-01...water-runs-dry

"And while the aquifer is losing that foot of water, it’s barely being refilled. In most of western Kansas, less than one inch of water seeps underground to recharge the aquifer each year."

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

A "Buffalo Commons" has been proposed for W. KS. for some time. Every once in a while, a new W KS HS faculty member will suggest students start a campaign against the proposal.

The irony is that IF the entire graduating class were to "irrigate" a dry ditch, the "reservoir" would be more local surface water than any of them have seen in their lifetime./sarchasm

[Those Who Squirm]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm in Eugene Oregon, at the south end of the Willamette Valley. Our rivers still have water in them, but last winter was and this winter has so far been terribly dry so far. The decline in average annual precipitation over the past couple of decades has been astonishing.

[pinebluestem]

Arkansas river used to follow steady. However, with irritation in western Kansas and Colorado and Kansas water wars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_v._Colorado