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High Plains History

High Plains History: The Numbered Highways Centennial

By Lynn Boitano

Published November 12, 2026 at 4:55 PM CST

An enduring legend of Lane County is the tale of “Blackie,” and an attempted robbery which occurred in the summer of 1922. “Blackie” and his partners, C. H. Barton and Arthur Lang, conceived a plan to rob the First National Bank of Dighton, Kansas.

Check out this week's episode, when Lynn Boitano interviews Charles Roamer, author of 83 Odyssey: An Adventure Down the Spine of America on U.S. Highway 83, to learn more about this companion road to Route 66, which helps to tie the High Plains communities together!

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High Plains History is a production of High Plains Public Radio.

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HPH Fall 2025: High Plains History Revisited High Plains History Revisited

Lynn Boitano

A native of California, Lynn Boitano has lived on the High Plains since 1988. She first came to High Plains Public Radio to work as News & Public Affairs Director. During her tenure at the station, she also served as Program Director and host of High Plains Morning.

See stories by Lynn Boitano

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High Plains History: The COW and Calf Railroads

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The western Oklahoma town of Cheyenne rests near ground scarred by a painful history. It was here, in late 1868, that Lieutenant Colonel George Custer led a dawn assault on the peace-seeking Southern Cheyenne village of Chief Black Kettle—an event once widely chronicled as a "battle," but now recognized as the Washita Massacre. Decades after, the town named for those displaced people found itself locked in a different kind of survival story: an early-20th-century rivalry for regional dominance.
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High Plains History: Pike's Tower

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When the Jeffersonian explorer Zebulon Pike undertook his Southwest Expedition in 1806, he went in search of the headwaters of the Arkansas River and the Red River. His trek brought him from the area of St. Louis through the Kansas plains, and into Southeastern Colorado. He camped on Willow Creek, near present day Lamar, at a place that has since been designated a community park.
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High Plains History: St. Joseph's Church

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Damar, Kansas, is a tiny town in northwest Kansas with a population of less than 115 people, some of whom can trace their lineage back to the early immigrant settlement of the area in the 1880s.
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High Plains History: Temple Houston

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Temple Houston was the first child born in the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Texas. His father was the legendary Sam Houston. From him, Temple inherited flamboyance — and a life full of opportunity. But he also inherited a strong will, and a determination to make his own name, out from under his father's shadow.
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High Plains History: National Grasslands

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In 1803 the United States acquired most of the Great Plains with the Louisiana Purchase. For more than 60 years the region, with its windswept seas of grass and wildflowers, represented America’s last frontier. However, the Homestead Act of 1862 brought, during the next 30 years, nearly six million settlers who tried to replace grass with agricultural crops.