An old bank - now a heaping pile of bricks - sits near the corner of
the city street that leads to his ranch house. A few foundations are
scattered in the neighboring pasture where cattle graze across sidewalks
that lead to nowhere - signs that people once inhabited this farming
and ranching community.
But not anymore. Living in the
nearly 100-year-old home he and his wife, Heidi, bought earlier this
year, Hazen is the last cowboy in Sitka, population 2.
"My
cousin said you can still see where the city blocks were at from the
top of the elevator," Hazen said, gesturing to the town's last business,
a cooperative open only during harvest seasons.
Those
taking U.S. 183 to the Oklahoma border will find Sitka, Kan., a small
pit stop in southern Clark County. It seems the town, once a center of
commerce, has quietly slipped away. |