Narrator: The first glimpse of Volland takes shape in the form of a building that appears to be a school or hotel. Driving closer, a sign points southward, directing traffic to a small cluster of buildings. Joyce Thierier, a historian who teaches at Emporia State University has five generations of family from the Volland community. She has written a master's thesis on the area, and describes the how this town came into being.
Joyce: The reason Volland was begun is because of the railroad track that you can see across here...The way the steam engines worked, is you had to have some kind of services provided for the steam engine, such as wood, coal and water, and you had to have one about every 8 to 10 miles, just so they could stop and take on.
Narrator: The railroad platted the new town and named it Graften. But Graften never physically existed, except on paper. In 1888 negotiation were made with the Wabunsee County Courthouse to rename the town from Graften to Volland.
Joyce: And all they did was change the name on the paper map. It became Volland. And that is because Henry and Barbara Volland who owned the land, they named it after them, typical way patterns worked with railroad towns.
Narrator:Volland served as an economic and social hub of the Washington township. Several institutions defined the town including the railroad, and the store.
Joyce:Volland had the railroad. That meant that that's where was a shipping point, there was also then meeting for the trains, the mail was delivered through there, but the mail then was carried across and placed into first at the wooden store, and then into 1913, what has always been known as the "newer store." But as you can see from its condition, it's not a new store.
The store is a primary social institution, and the stories, Oh I've heard so many great stories about what went on in this town. They'd come in and they'd park their horses, and this is what they would call it, they'd park their buggies, talking about parking cars, comes from the term parking buggies, and hitch up their horses, and they would stand around. You hear the stories about sitting around all winter long, well that's only part of it, that's just a microcosm of what goes on in a general store. All the talk about weather and politics and socializing and who's doing what. It's always very much a part of the store situation. Today we go into a store, you just run around and pick up everything. No in the stores of this vintage you would step up to the counter, you would give them your grocery list, and he's put it together.
Narrator:Volland was also known for its stockyard, which was situated next to the train depot. More cattle were shipped out of Volland than Alma or Altavista.
Joyce: It's a perfect feeding spot in the sense that cattle would be unloaded and there's stores of longhorns coming in here from Texas that would be too weak to even be drawn out of the, this is before they ever stopped to water or feed then they'd be shipped up from Texas, they'd be in tough condition, stories about them pulling them out, just literally dragging them out, they'd drag them over into the stockyard and they'd replenish them with food and water, get um back up and going. In 1912 they built in a 2nd shoot to even handle the amount. So they'd be able to fill two railroad cars, or unload at a time, that shows you the volume of cattle that are going through. That meant that the local farm boys would play cowboys, as part of the work of take in. So cowboying is an occupation that many of the farmboys would indulge in when the pasture cattle came in. Volland is typical in that it did have, typical of railroad towns, it was a T town, and it had a depot, had a store, had a school, but not in the town, this was where it was atypical, because the students had to walk. The closest one would be about 3/4 mile from Volland, it did not have a lumber yard, it did have a stockyard, but it did not have a church. And that reflects the attitude of the settlers that came into this area, Alma was settled more by German Catholics, and German Lutherans, the ones who settled around here did not seem to have any kind of religious affiliation that anyone could agree on.
A town is created usually by a concept, or an idea, or a need. So the streets are laid out, the buildings are started to be developed, then we move into the hay-day of the town, and then either the town tends to either continue to grow, or it eases out of existence. But what killed the town economically is the transition from steam to the diesel. When the diesel came though there wasn't any need for the depot and the depot closed.
This is the only remains they have, this closest thing that they have to the depot here, its all done with microwave and satellite, switching off, there used to be a man who would throw the switch off of this direction and just run them right off across this siding across here, none of its here any more. Just nothing's here any more.
The railroad no longer stops for cattle. And if there's no reason to stop. Between the railroad, and the switch from horses to the automobile, what could Volland offer? People would get into their automobiles and they'd go.