#3: [21-Apr-23]

#2: [13-May-21]

#1: [01-Jul-01]

08-Mar-2025 --

Jack and I finally got a chance to scratch our confluence hunting itch on this early March afternoon, over a month having passed since visiting our last point. It was time to knock out a confluence in a region we'd somewhat neglected up until now: the wide-open flat expanses of north-central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas. 37N 98W has inadvertantly turned into a 2020s confluence Mecca of sorts, with our visit being the third of the decade! An interesting fluke considering the overall slowdown in United States confluence reports since the 2000s. Given this, I can't say we found anything too groundbreaking about the spot — there's not much that'll change about a Kansas wheat field every two years (other than the planting/harvesting dates, I guess).

As usual we made a point of seeing what we could along the way to our confluence of the day; this time it was the town of Marshall, OK, some 60 miles/95 km south of our target. Supposedly it's home to the widest main street in the United States, although that claim isn't verified (at least according to Wikipedia). Even if not the widest main street, it was certainly unusual in its width and worth a detour to quickly cruise down! For the remainder of our northbound approach, we drove the length of OK 132 — conveniently enough, said highway almost perfectly follows 98W over its entire 65 miles/105 km to the Kansas border. For future visitors, I should note that there are actually a couple of other points of interest much closer to 37N 98W that we bypassed on this day: the out-of-place looking Salt Plains Nat'l Wildlife Refuge (22 mi/35 km southwest of the confluence), and the town of Wakita (9 mi/15 km southeast), featured in the movie Twister and home to a museum about said film.

The state highway network brought us to within 2.2 mi/3.5 km of 37N 98W in the town of Manchester, a small farming community positioned just barely on the Oklahoma side of the Oklahoma/Kansas border. Here (OK 132's northern terminus), we turned east and followed the aptly named Stateline Rd for a few minutes past some winter wheat fields. The surroundings resembled what I imagine many people think of when asked to picture Oklahoma, probably due in no small part to the fact that portions of the aforementioned movie were filmed around here. To be fair, it also resembled what I imagine when asked to picture Kansas, but that just means I need to get out and explore it some more (and this was a good start). We parked the car in a mostly empty gravel lot with some farm machines, just west of the T junction on the confluence field's southwest corner. We walked over to and turned left at the dirt road junction, opting to approach 37N from the road before cutting east to the spot, so as to minimize our steps in the young wheat.

Anticipation built as the point drew nearer: 400 feet... 250 feet... 40 feet... And soon we found it, nicely positioned away from any trees, farm equipment, or power lines, (or anything,) with perfect 360° views of the horizon. Would not want to be standing here during a thunderstorm! The zeroes dance was thankfully brief, because our schedule had suddenly become accelerated — the near-omnipresent Southern Plains confluence companion cows were in the same field as us and had taken an interest in what we were doing. From about the time I got the north-facing shot, the curious group started to meander in our direction. It would've been nice to closely inspect the wheat quality but in the interest of not accidentally getting trampled, we started our retreat as soon as the directional photos were completed. The overview photo was taken while walking backwards during the retreat — 37N 98W is just beside the dirt patch in the center of the photo, with cows inbound.

We were only at the spot for two minutes or so, but felt satisfied all the same: another point under our belts, and both Jack and I's first Kansas confluence. The weather was rather milquetoast: our visit was completed under overcast skies with a temperature in the mid 40s (~7°C) and gentle winds. We headed back to the car and returned to the highway, continuing on a bit into Kansas. We then enjoyed a late lunch at a nice local Mexican restaurant called Mi Pueblito in Caldwell, KS (22 mi/35 km east-northeast of 37N 98W) before departing the region. An all around great day!