By Elmer, the
Ghost
(Night Guard for Sparks
Flea Market)
sparks is a
gost town.
now, thats how its listed on maps now a days.
(i cant give you a good defination
of an adress for sparks..)
it had a
population of 1,562 people in the early 1900,s
the era of trains brought much to sparks in the era of 1890
till 1930
when all rail roads abandonded stoping at sparks which was
then called highland station
.it became
sparks when the name was changed from highland station to
sparks
because of the large family of sparks that resided there in
1938.
the rail road
took all tracks out in 1932 and from that time on sparks
has dwindled down to a populaiton of 9 resedents. the
address has been
box 126 since it was highland station , ks. 66035.
then along came
911 and all places had to have a new add .
so the address
that i have there is 1708 freeport rd. troy ks 66087.
now some people
refer to it as 1708 freeport rd. highland, ks 66035.
there are
only 12 adresses that i know of there in sparks.
i tell folks to
look for the cross roads
of 240 th rd & freeport rd.
thats the center of town.
this 911
readdressing was inatated about 5 years ag.
i havent been able to locate that adress since then..
i can still find box 126 highland,ks 66035.
i direct people
by saying get a map of gost towns in doniphan co. ks
and look up sparks ks.
we are still on the old rand mcnally road atless from sevral
years ago
and i am told that sparks still exzists on some new maps of
ks which is of single states..
i havent seen a
new map of ks. anywhere..
i remember
when you could pull into any gas station in any state
and get a map of that state for free but they dont do that
any more
so thats why i havent seen one..
i am told you
can order one from topeka our capital and recive one
but you have to send $5.00 for it.
dont know how
else to tell you how to find the adress there in sparks.
hang on i am going to try something...--.
hay i just went
to google and typed in 1708 freeport rd. sparks,ks 66035
and it brought up a map of sparks with that add on it but it
said the add
is 1708 freeport rd. highland,ks . 66035.
even though it shows an arrow and says sparks
so i gues this may be the way it is listed for 911
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maps.google.com
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now.god i dont
know about this world of today..
i know its be-on me to navigate any more..
every one tells me to get out of the horse and buggy days
and become morden
but this new world is be-on my reach
i think.well
enough on the adress thing and i hope this helps you.
as for public attendance that attends the show.. good
question
as i have no way of montering the flow of people.the
ks. highway patrol
and shirefs dept that direct traffic on the highway at
market time
estamate roughly 150,000 cars pass through the roads that
suround sparks.
my self i think
its more like 50,000 to 75,000 people that come through the
market.
i think they
just come back sevral times through the week end
and i think every one of them are there on sat.
because its hard to move around with out bumping into
people.
when people
call i tell them to try and come on thursday or friday
if they can and try and avoid saterday if at all possible..
sunday is
just about as bad as saturday
but i tell them its less crowed on sunday than saturday..
we have a span
of venders rangeing from between 400 to 500 venders..
i never know
how many are going to show up.
we always have about 300 sighned up who are regulars.
then when it gets about two weeks befor market i start
getting calls
makeing new reservations & then we generaly have about 50
people
that has herd of us and just drive in and request a space...
venders start
comming in to set up the monday befor the show
and i put them on there spaces but they cant put anything
out for sale
untill the wensday befor the show.
venders come in
to set up at the show from sunday
if they know where there space is befor
all the way to saturday at the show.
it all depends when they can come..
some have to work untill
friday so they cant set up early..
we have about 80 % or about 375 venders set in by wensday
noon.
as far as great itams found here ???
i rairly get time to
shop the market my selfe
but this is what i hear from the public through out the
show..
they come by the tower and say are you RAY..
then they start thanking
me for having the antique & collectible show
and they have found the victrola they been looking for for
years
or they found a pice of early costume jewlery or some pice
of fine finiture
or glass wheare.
some tell me its there
first time there
and ask me if i know just were some artical may be that they
are looking for
may be i might know a vender that some times carry itams
like that...
i say that maby this or that vender may have it and direct
them to that vender..
i kind of know who
carrys a certin line of product so some times this works
and some times it dont.. some come back and say they found
it but maby
not where i sent them but some one else had it..
i have seen a lot of
weard things there that i didnt even know ever exzisted..
lots of primitive itams.. there is always two or three
venders that stop by
the tower to show me some unuasial thing they have found at
a farm
sale.most unusal thing i saw there one time was a stove that
froze ice by cooking
a liquid and running it through a box cooling water turning
it into an ice block
of about 30 lbs..lots of unusail indian stuff pluss pioneer
itams.
this place is like a
musieum at market time
but the differance is you can buy it if you can aford the
price
because some times if it is a real unique pice they want a
bunch for it.
i have been told by folks that we always have the most
unusail itams each time they come.
i gues thats because we
have a lot of different venders at each show.
there is always a new vender there and the old venders bring
new stuff to the shows..
thats because they sell so much stuff that they have to find
new itams for each show.
i see truck loads of
funiture an verious other things pass in front of the tower
as the coustermers leave in the evenings
.i dont have any idea
where they find it but i see it leaving the market..
i never get to see most of them set up but the crew does and
some times
they tell me about some thing they seen that was awsom to
them.
man i got to go this is
a book.. i do hope this helped you some more..
the states where most
coustermers come from is -
colorado - oklahoma - mo. - ia - neb. - il. - tex. & new
mexico.
a few come
from ks. to but i dont think to many from ks.
dont know what to say about most citys the people come
from. -
i supose- kc.mo. desmoines ia. council bluffs ia and sioux
city , ia. -
omaha neb. aera & linclon neb. denver , co. aera.
dallas tex. aera. oklahoma. is tulsa & ok city. mo. aera
kc, mo aera - saint lewis, mo -- maccon - st joseph,
trenton-
a lot of towns in mo. to many to list. same way with nm. &
co.
ok i kind of thought add should lead them to web site also.
hate to brag about the market
so i think its best for them to find out for there selves
what the market is like.
i
find that once they have been there
they do a lot of bragin to others and
thats what makes the public attendance grow..
ok enough for now. that. ---- oh forgot to say
we are on the internet in some places
through our adds in the books, papers and magisines.
i
know we are in two places in kc, mo & one place in
desmoines , ia
and one place in lincoln, neb.i dont think we get a lot of
public from ks.
they dont seam to be to antique buyers in ks.
but thats just my opinion.
i
have been known to be wrong a bunch of times... lol lol
i belive that
more come from.-- co.- mo.- ia. neb and ok
than from the state of ks..