Shattuck, OK

Shattuck sits west of the center of Ellis County, where U.S. 283 runs through a town shaped by the old Cherokee Outlet, the Southern Kansas Railway, and the water stops that made rail travel possible. The railroad reached the area in 1887, and the station once known as Norice helped set the town's location. Today the road carries the through traffic, while City Park, Main Street, local shops, civic offices, and the surrounding farm country give Shattuck its everyday scale.

Wind power is the town's signature local story. The Shattuck Windmill Museum and Park, established in 1994, has 37 windmills ranging from a five-foot Star Zephyr to the 18-foot Samson. City Park adds playground equipment, tennis courts, covered picnic facilities, and a mile-long lighted trail around Centennial Lake. Seven miles east, Gage Beach brings a spring-fed swimming pool into the summer map. Shattuck is a town where the railroad, wind, water, and highway all show up in the same week.