A “Sisters Cities” first: a community – the original one, that is – under water.

It’s true. The original Randolph, Kansas is now submerged, but the rebuilt city of Randolph, Kansas, is alive and vibrant, a great place to drive to and visit.

Russell Peterson has lived in the area since boyhood. He graduated from the old Blue Valley High School. “Randolph, when it was down in the valley,” he says, “it was pretty close to the intersection of a major creek in the Blue River. But it was high enough that flood waters didn’t bother it, and then of course it was low enough that when Tuttle Creek (Reservoir) Dam was built across the Blue River, it disappeared.”

Both land and structures were lost. “I know there was a lumber yard, a mill, a bank, and a grocery store,” says Janie Dunstan, President of Randolph PRIDE. “’The big damn foolishness’ is what they called it. And it was a couple of towns because it wasn’t just Randolph. The mile long bridge (Randolph Bridge, which connects both Randolph and Olsburg) crosses over the lake, over Tuttle Creek, and old Randolph is below it and just a little bit north. So, old Randolph is down in the lakebed.” 

Tuttle Creek Reservoir Dam was authorized in 1939, and after a 1951 flood, construction started in 1952. It was completed in 1961.

“Quite a few of the houses in Randolph are transplanted from the old Randolph; a number of houses were moved up on the hill,” says Peterson, “It’s relatively common around here to move houses. You just jack ‘em up and put wheels under them and hook a truck on them and haul them off.”

One thing Peterson loves is the bandstand in the new Randolph which resembles the old. “We had a city square, and there was a bandstand in the city square,” he recalls. “One of the old natives made a replica of that bandstand that looks exactly like the one that was in old Randolph. It’s in the  city park in the new Randolph.” He further reflects. “I think the Blue River Valley will be planting corn again someday, but it’ll be hundreds of years from now. That dam will be there for the foreseeable future.” Peterson himself grows corn, soybeans, and wheat on his property. “And there’s quite a bit of native grass,” he says of the Randolph terrain. “Native grass is land that’s never been plowed. That’s the grass that was here when Indians lived here. I guess the main source of income from agriculture around here is cattle.”

Randolph, New Jersey has about 26,000 people and is about 21 square miles. County College of Morris alone sits on 220 acres. Randolph, Kansas itself rests on just 80 acres, one eighth of a square mile. “The dimensions of Randolph,” says Peterson, “is about a quarter mile one way and a half mile the other way.” And you won’t find major highways like Route 10 or 80 running near the Kansas “sister,” but you will find Routes 16 and 893, and Highway 77 enveloping the tiny area. “The Randolph that is here now is about two or three miles from where the old town was,” says Peterson, “and you don’t want to blink when you drive past it. It’s on Highway 77, but there’s about 170 people or thereabouts.”

Randolph, New Jersey was incorporated in 1806. As for the Kansas Randolph, in 1855 Gardner Randolph laid a claim to a parcel of land, and in 1856 J.K. Whitson did the same. A tug-of-war ensued, Whitson eventually declared the claim holder. Randolph was then renamed Waterville, but an 1876 Legislative Act was signed, and the name was switched back to Randolph.

Dunstan has lived in Randolph since 2006 and works at Kansas State University. “(We are) very much incorporated. We have a city council, and we have a fire department. It’s volunteer. Five of us (Dunstan included) are on it.” The current Randolph is home to Lillie Sharp’s Attwood House Bed and Breakfast (www.attwoodhouse.com) for lodging. It was “Doc” Attwood’s home in old Randolph, and it was moved to the higher elevation like other structures. “We have a restaurant now just in the past year,” says Dunstan, “Emerald City Grill & BBQ (107 Front Street, www.emeraldcitygrillandbbq.com). It was about May or June when they opened. They have a very good burger and the best fries.”

Cassandra Peterson, the actress who starred as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, hails from the area.

“During the summer,” Dunstan says, “you go outside, there are neighbors or people walking down the street. I mean, it’s a community; it is not a town, it is a community. My kids are 8, 11, and 12 now, and they’ve gone to the park for years by themselves, they ride their bikes around town. I trust the people in this town to raise my kids as much as my husband and me. They are watching out for them; I know what’s going on before the kids when they get home.”

“It’s such a good community to raise a family.”

For more information, visit www.randolphks.com.