Great Bend Area

[mcolo]

You mentioned in your posting the cities of Garden City and Larned. That is wonderful. I live in a small town just across the Colorado border and Garden City is where we go for our shopping and entertainment needs. It has about 30,000 people so it's not too small or too big which seemed to be what you were looking for. Garden has a small mall with Sears, JCPenney, and several other typical mall stores. It has a nice hospital, several good restaurants, and the people have always been very friendly. It is about 3 hours from Wichita, so if you need to go to the big city for something, you could make it a day trip. I would highly recommend you check it out!

Larned is another good choice. I drive through it quite often. I am always amazed at how clean Larned is, it really has a Mayberry feel to it. I have only stopped there for gas and food, but the people seem very friendly and I have a friend who grew up there and he has always said the people were great.

I hope you can check these cities out, and I hope I have helped.

[mile high]

OK, Great Bend, briefly put...

Medical care: there's Central Kansas Med. Center (a glorified hospital built on the 1960's concept of high-tech care, but aging). There's no VA hospital closer than an hour's drive.

Quiet/laid back: True, when the trains aren't running through the center. Most of these prairie towns were built for and about the railroads. Great Bend has a track running diagonally through the west side of town -- about one slow freight per day but rarely if ever at night. But there's a lot of truck traffic (cattle haulers, through trucks, etc.) that run through town...10th and McKinley. And they run all the time, day and night. Great Bend could but hasn't built a bypass for the through traffic.

Friendly? Well, you gotta be to get along. That's just good PR. But is the friendliness superficial? Let me put it this way: in small towns anywhere you usually have to live there three generations before you're considered an insider. That's the case almost anywhere, not just here in GB. But if you're a business/employer, well that's of course another thing altogether. The biggest business in GB is banking, so you'll be a persona grata!

And convenience isn't a strong suit if you're used to Home Depot around the corner. The nearest large big box store other than WalMart is 70 miles down/up the road. So if you drive a Toyota (and indeed, many do here) then plan a daytrip to a dealer for service. On the other hand, if you drive a Lincoln or F150, Marmie's does a pretty decent job right here in town.

[Wanderer0101]

I live in Great Bend for a year and I really liked it. It's just a decent, small town. I found the people very friendly and helpful. The library was pretty good when I was there and the duck hunting was great. It can be cold in the winter, especially with the wind.

[TBLight81]

Great Bend is not bad. Cost of living is low, home prices and rent lower than national average. No VA (closest I believe is Wichita which is around a two hour drive or so) and the hospital in Great Bend is a bit antiquated but ok. Not much to do and the only major store in town is Wal Mart. I saw someone mention Washington County as well. It's even less developed but a very nice area. I have family that live in both Great Bend and Washington County. In my opinion they are both nice areas but they don't have all the conveniences of a big city.

[Jim West]

You need to come visit. Great Bend, Hays and Salina all have their good points.

No one with a lick of sense would want to move to Wichita or Lawrence.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Jim West

You need to come visit. Great Bend, Hays and Salina all have their good points.

No one with a lick of sense would want to move to Wichita or Lawrence.

I don't think Wichita and Lawrence belong in the same category

[Jim West]

Wyatt Earp tried to clean up Wichita, and Quantrill and Anderson tried to clean up Lawrence, and neither one of them did a real good job of it.

Maybe not for identical reasons, but you have to admit that it did make both Earp and Quantrill into folk heros.

[2005hawk]

Originally Posted by Re-Tired

For some unknown reason, I hear Kansas calling me. We are considering moving there (Hays/Great Bend/Salina) area.

What can you tell me about the weather? I know that it can get cold in the winter, but how hot in the summer, how windy and the chances of tornado's?
How standoffish are the locals in small towns to outsiders?

I have never been to KS, but my ancestors lived there in late 1800's before migrating West. My great great grandparents are buried in Washington Co. near Palmer.

We are in our late 50's and self employed in the antique business. So we don't need to live in a large city, just close to good medical center and VA Hospital.

We hope to come visit in early May? Is that a good time weather wise?

Its a good time to visit Kansas and see a tornado! There are a few of them tonight. Weather is hot in summer, cold in winter. We have four distinct seasons, but sometimes spring and fall are brief (though not usually). The greatest weather variable across the state is annual rainfall. Eastern Kansas receives about 40 inches annually (comparable to other midwestern states east of Kansas) whereas Western Kansas receives as little as 17 or 18 inches annually. The most common and consistent weather feature statewide is wind. Its generally very windy here.

I think if you want to have a successful antique business you do not want to relocate to too small of a community. Hays, Great Bend and Salina are all reasonably sized with Great Bend being the smallest at around 15,000; Hays at around 20,000 and is a college town on Interstate 70; and Salina being a city of around 50,000 also on I-70. Wichita is a city, so if you dont want to live in a metropolitan area keep that in mind. Some good alternate locations you have not mentioned could be Newton (20,000 or so) Hutchinson (40,000 or so) or McPherson (15,000) or so, all of which are within about an hour of Wichita. Maybe a small town in the Flint Hills (which are beautiful, but located a bit farther east than you've indicated you'd want to move) like Cottonwood Falls or Council Grove would suit you considering your business. There are some really small towns that are quintessential Kansas farm towns, but most are likely too small to support your business. Something to keep in mind if that matters to you.

Dont worry too much about being welcomed by the community. Most Kansas towns are experiencing declining populations and are therefore very interested in welcoming newcomers, especiall those with a business.

Best of luck to you.

[gary from ar]

I grew up in Lyons Ks and lived in GB for six years then moved to Rogers Ar. I use Ar as my home state. Does that tell you anything?