A 400 mile traveling event this month takes participants across the state of Kansas in search of treasure.
The US Highway 36 Association has put on a “Treasure Hunt” for 11 years with over 30 towns participating from Elwood to St. Francis, Kansas.
Christiane Cole is the Highway Association Marketing Coordinator and Secretary. Cole said back in 2005, the Highway 36 Association came up with the idea.
“The Association decided that it needed an event or something to help boost the use of Highway 36 and to reflect on its history – it is 103 years old,” Cole said. “Highway 36 is a very important viaduct through six states and since we wanted to boost traffic we decided that one way to do it would be to have this Treasure Hunt which is garage sales, antique sales, estate sales, auctions, different towns do different things.”
Cole said treasure hunters comes to Kansas from Louisiana, Minnesota, Oregon, Florida and other places around the country.
“We started noticing they were arriving as early as Tuesday and starting on one end of the state and working their way across,” Cole said. “It is still advertised as a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event but we know that some antiquers and some shoppers do come into our state early. So, on the positive side, the travelers are here early enough in the week which means an economic impact which lingers throughout that week and beyond, so Kansas benefits from our travelers visiting us early.”
Cole said the Treasure Hunt is a good event for any antique enthusiasts and bargain hunters.
“We have a lot of antique stores in every county, all the towns,” Cole said. “We’ve had women who have called and said, ‘About four of us get together every year from Texas and we load up our truck and load up the trailer and we come up and have a grand old time.’”
Cole said anyone wanting to join in the Treasure Hunt to set up a garage sale or other sale can contact their local chamber office.
The 2016 Treasure Hunt takes place September 16 – 18. Maps and more can be found online on the Highway 36 website.