Cato tour offers glimpse of life in the 1880s

CATO, Kan.-- Organizers of the upcoming Cato Tour plan to take visitors back to the mid-1800s through music, history and re-enactments.

Set for Oct. 26-27 in the small Crawford County town, the event is organized by the nonprofit Cato Historical Preservation Association. Featured will be will include historical impersonations, interpretations of music from the time period, a demonstration of the one-room schoolhouse at the old stone Cato School, a hot dog roast, hayrides to area cemeteries and other sites related to Cato's history and tales of Cato's history.

Friday will be a field day for hundreds of area students from Uniontown, Northeast in Arma and Frontenac who will visit the town from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. and learn about what it was like in Southeast Kansas in the 1800s.

Youngsters from Pittsburg and Countryside Christian schools will attend afternoon activities from noon to 2 p.m.

"We'll get about 400 area students from Crawford and Bourbon counties," CHPA member and historian Ralph Carlson said.

A tour guide will direct groups of kids to various stations to observe living history exhibits such as blacksmithing, wagons and farming, schoolhouse games, area history, Civil War weaponry and Native American culture.

"It exposes little kids to the very early history of Crawford County. It plays into Fort Scott history," Carlson said.

Cato founder and U.S. Army Capt. John Rogers mustered out of Fort Scott wanting to start a business with settlers coming west. Rogers founded Cato in 1854.

Saturday activities will be open to the general public and take place from 9 to 11 a.m. and from noon to 2 p.m. Weather permitting, CHPA Chairwoman Susie Stelle said tour-goers will visit the Coonrod cemetery and the Buckhorn Tavern site, both located near Cato, and other locales.

Various souvenirs will be available for sale during the weekend, including prints of the old Cato Bridge that spans Drywood Creek about one-and-a-half miles east of Cato, chances on a quilt, ham and beans and cornbread and country store items. Proceeds will benefit the continued restoration and preservation of the Cato School and Cato Christian Church.

Maps of the Cato area, as it existed between 1860 and 1910, will also be available for sale for $5 with those funds benefiting the school and church.

Sticks will be provided for the hot dog roast, but visitors are encouraged to bring their own wieners and drinks, Stelle said.

Last year, Eagle Scout Joe Otter, of Pittsburg, and his fellow Troop 81 members, restored the Cato Bridge located between the schoolhouse and church.

Stelle said the association is looking for a book cabinet for its growing book collection and a glass display cabinet for Cato artifacts. Anyone who would like to donate either of these items may contact her at (620) 232-6944.

Cato, the oldest town in Crawford County, is located between Fort Scott and Pittsburg about eight miles west of Arcadia on the Bourbon County line. It was originally in Bourbon County until boundaries changed after the Civil War. In 1867, Cato, which then consisted of a store and post office, became part of Crawford County.

The Cato School, built in 1869, was listed on the Kansas Register of Historic Places in 2005 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The building served as a schoolhouse and meeting house until the mid-1950s.For more information, visit www.catoschool.com.