MUSCOTAH — The 176 residents of Muscotah in northeast Kansas have stepped up the plate in hopes of hitting a home run for tourism. Reuters reported volunteers from the Kansas Explorers Club from across the state converged on Muscotah recently to paint the round top of the town’s water tower to look like a baseball and to build a small replica of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The town hopes to capitalize on its ties to native son Joe Tinker, a baseball hall of fame second baseman for the early Chicago Cubs. They’re also creating a museum dedicated to Tinker. Muscotah joins many other towns across rural Kansas and America offering quirky, offbeat and boutique attractions hoping to preserve their economic survival, Reuters reported. In Piqua, west of Iola, there is a Buster Keaton museum, dedicated to the silent film star, who was born in Piqua 118 years ago. Another Kansas town, Cawker City, boasts a 9-ton ball of twine, which it calls “the world’s largest,” and Norton has an art gallery devoted strictly to also-rans in American presidential elections. In Muscotah’s case, the British news service said people already are coming to take pictures of the 20-foot-diameter steel baseball.
Tuesday, May 28, 7 a.m.
