The Empirical Manifesto

Good Gala Miss Mala, its Tala Dala! Ring, ring! A non-working static Swedish phone booth outside one of the oldest structures in Lindsborg, the Homberg & Johnson Blacksmith Shop.

The Lindsborg Union Pacifc Depot used from 1880 to 1974, now part of the museum - replete with the Santa Fe 735 engine as a static display. McPherson is 14 miles South, Newton another 28 miles further.

Across the street looking at the remains of a dam, presumably to power the flour mill, which sat upon the river's bank.

Meet King Oscar, one of 29 storefront "Wild Dala's" gracing the city as its mascot - and Sweden's best known icon. These little boogers were everywhere! Porch signs on houses, a bottle of wine we bought, t-shirts, mugs and I hear even on the local police cars.

ehowton touring the gorgeously restored 1898 Flour Mill. I'll tell you, I was not excited about touring a flour mill...until I walked in. Gleaming, highly polished brass and lacquered wood three stories high; the engineering fascinated me! We had the entire place to ourselves. Quite formidable.

Why were the Swedes living in Kansas? I dunno. There was a museum here, but it was seemingly about the Bolsheviks and how they slaughtered Mennonites 100-years after the first Russian Czar invited them to live tax-free and without military service by working the land they gave them. And the Mennonites only moved to Kansas after first occupying Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. How they end up in a Swedish Museum I haven't figured out yet, except they were good at working wheat at the above flour mill.

An implement at the flour mill, presumably used by the Mennonites and not the Swedes. Its complicated.

The Swedish Pavilion was prefabricated in Sweden and sent to America for the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis.

catttitude gazes upon the intrados of the arch at the waterfront.