▪ Blackwater (175, 91): Iron Horse Hotel West End Theatre on the route to Arrow Rock. ▪ Brunswick (788, 91): Pecan Capital of Missouri boasting pecan farms and world’s Largest 20th Century Pecan Sew Sweet, a nationally recognized quilting shop. ▪ Jamesport (556 population, 82 miles): Amish stores and businesses, horse-related operations multiple antique shops. It instead housed Lane University in Lecompton. The Territorial Capital Museum is in a building that was intended to be the Kansas Capitol before Topeka was designated as the state capital. So is Wamego, Kansas, near Manhattan, but it also is special in Meyer’s estimation. Plattsburg is too large for inclusion in our tiny towns listing. “Plattsburg was a fun discovery for me this time to add to the book.” “There are some gorgeous homes up there,” Meyer said.

It features Victorian architecture and a high-quality bakery. Two spots Meyer has added in the updated “Day Trips” are Lecompton, a Kansas town northwest of Lawrence filled with historic significance, and Plattsburg, just northeast of Kansas City. Meyer describes many of these same towns in the recently released 17th edition of “Day Trips From Kansas City,” which the late former Star entertainment writer and restaurant critic Shifra Stein originated in 1980. “There are so many wonderful little communities,” travel writer Diana Lambdin Meyer of Parkville said. Almost all have antique shops, boutiques, restaurants and museums that will keep visitors occupied for most of an afternoon. Some towns are day trips, others might be places to visit on the way to somewhere else. We’re also narrowing the driving distance to places within a one-tank roundtrip, or about 200 miles. So small that favorite getaway spot Weston (population 1,641) is well over our limit of 1,000 inhabitants.

Ghost towns near kansas city missouri