Are you looking for spots to stop by on your next Kansas road trip? If you’ve never heard of or visited Helium Memorial Park, we hope you’ll add it to a future travel route. This little spot is a beautiful way to immortalize an important historical moment in Kansas history. At least, we think so!
Today’s adventure takes us out to a tiny town in Kansas named Dexter, where a memorial park is just the spot to see.
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Dexter is home to a great little community and a beautiful small town atmosphere, but did you know Dexter also marks the spot in Kansas where helium was discovered in natural gas?
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As the story goes, when drilling for natural gas, they found that the gas from this spot simply wouldn’t burn. In fact, it blew out the flames held to it.
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This presented a mystery that professors Cady and McFarland at the University of Kansas could solve. After they analyzed samples from many areas, they found that helium was plentiful in the Great Plains.
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Though this pipe sits here in Dexter, there is also a historical marker at the intersection of K15 and Hwy 166 that commemorates the discovery of the well and helium plant.
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Along with the helium memorabilia, you’ll find lots of barn quilt designs that make the park beautiful. Though it’s a small park, it’s perfect for adding a pit stop to your next road trip in the area.
Emily Crain/Google
The park is open during daylight hours, and the barn quilt trail is a great place to head to when you’re finished here.
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To read more about Dexter, Kansas and the Helium Memorial Park, check out the Cowley County webpage all about it. If you’d like to learn more about the discovery of helium here, there is an official ACS webpage as well.
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If you have little spots you’d love for us to add to our travels, tell us all about them here! We take suggestions for places to cover at Only In Kansas.
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Address: Dexter, KS 67038, USA
