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Clements Stone Arch Bridge and Bichet School House

Lenora Webb Biggs
Mar 21, 2018
2 min read

So, since it's Spring Break, why not take a road trip? This is one of two roads trips I will be taking this week. Stayed tuned for my post about road trip #2 on Friday/Saturday...I am super excited about it and have been wanting to visit this place for a long time. 😉

Anyway, today I visited the ghost town of Clements, KS. Clements is located right off of Highway 50 in the beautiful Flint Hills in Chase County.

Last summer as I was driving on Highway 50 to Chase State Fishing Lake (stayed tuned-I will be posting about this amazing place soon!) I happened to notice a sign for Clements Stone Arch Bridge. Why not see what that sign was about and what this bridge was?

It led me to this. Amazing! (Notice the trees in my picture)

A little history about Clements Stone Arch Bridge. It was built on the Cottonwood River in 1886. It was built out of limestone from local quarries. The bridge was used by cattle ranchers and farmers to get their goods to market. The bridge has 28 foot double arches and is the largest and one of the oldest limestone bridges in Kansas.

I had been wanting to go back and visit the bridge because the trees made it difficult to get a full view of the bridge. This time I was able to have better views and was able to explore more because there was less brush.

As you can see, this bridge is very impressive. The fact that it was built over 100 years ago impresses me the most.

On the way back, I happened to notice another road that led to an interesting looking building, so again, why not turn and see where it leads?

This is what I stumbled on.

An old school house! As an educator, I absolutely love old school houses. It makes me thankful for my own classroom and just one grade to teach. I can't imagine how the teachers of the past did it!

I googled this particular school house and this is what I found.

The Bichet School District 34 was built in 1896 and closed in 1946 due to low enrollment. The school was built for the children of French families who settled along the Cottonwood River. The one room school house was built out of native limestone. There are two outhouses and a "storm shelter" stone cave.