After thousands of miles through several states — it’s Kansas’ turn

KANSAS (KSNF/KODE) — Living through the early months of the pandemic gave Nebraska native Seth Varner an idea that sprung up out of a lack of something — anything — to do when all else was shut down during the COVID-19 restrictions of 2020.

“After my first year of college was let out early by the pandemic, I go back to my small hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska, and I began working at the local Dairy Queen. There’s not a lot to do when there’s a pandemic, and you’re in a small town. So, after working for about a month, I’m like, ‘This is … this is bad. I need to get out and do something,'” said Varner.

In an effort to make something out of his first summer break from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Varner — with his passion for history and love of travel — came up with the idea to visit every incorporated town in his home state.

1. Nebraska — 531 Incorporated Towns

“I got one of my friends to tag along with me, and really the whole point was for us to get out and do something, to basically cure boredom from pandemic isolation,” said Varner.

After traveling through the first 100 Nebraska cities and towns on his list, Varner’s mom stepped in with some advice — giving her son a little social media boost by recommending he start a Facebook page all about his travels across the state.

“I’m like, ‘no one’s gonna care that I’m traveling to all these towns.’ So, I started the Facebook page, but I didn’t expect anything to come from it. Boy, was I wrong,” Varner said.

His newly created Facebook page amassed 10,000 followers within the first month.

Before the curtains closed on 2020, Varner managed to visit every incorporated town in Nebraska: All 531 of them.

“By the end of the whole trip, there were like 25,000 followers on the (Facebook) page. Some of the people on there said, ‘You should document all of the things you saw in the pictures and make a coffee-table book out of them.’ The more I thought about it, the more it made sense,” said Varner.

2. Iowa — 939 Incorporated Towns

In 2021, Varner decided to hit the road once more — this time in Iowa. However, the trip would be no cakewalk. Although the state is geographically comparable to Nebraska — Iowa has 939 incorporated towns, nearly 500 more than Nebraska’s. Varner stated the trip from town-to-town was “daunting.”

“That project spanned from the second semester of my sophomore year all the way into the beginning semester of my junior year (Spring 2021 — Fall of 2022). I also had obligations with school at the time, so Iowa turned out to be pretty challenging, to say the least,” Varner said.

3. South Dakota — 310 Incorporated Towns

Despite visiting nearly 1,000 incorporated towns in the “Hawkeye State,” the young college student wasn’t ready to give up. In fact, his year-and-a-half-long trip motivated him to keep on moving. His next town tour took place in South Dakota — with a much smaller number of incorporated cities to visit, only 310.

After his “lower Dakota” tour came to an end, Varner was faced with a new year and a big question: Where to next? Varner says the obvious answer was the “Sunflower State” and its 627 communities, both big and small.

“I’ve been east, and I’ve been north, so now it’s either west or south and since I can get to Kansas pretty quickly from my home in Nebraska, touring the towns in that state just makes sense,” said Varner, who graduated from college in May of this year.

4. Kansas — 627 Incorporated Towns

In February 2023, Varner headed down the road once more with his sights set on Kansas. As of early July, his number sits at 348 — visiting approximately 55% of all incorporated Kansas towns in just five months. With 279 still, to go, he claims to be on track to have visited all 627 by early October — only three months away.

“The goal of my project this year is to showcase as much as I can about Kansas’s 627 communities, big or small, whether it be their history, architecture, or food. Although I won’t capture a picture of every object in every town, I’ll photograph as many businesses, churches, schools, and other points of interest as I can to provide people with a general sense of what the town looks like in 2023,” Varner said.

Varner’s town tour will bring him into far Southeast Kansas in mid-to-late July, where he’ll visit cities and towns in Cherokee and Crawford Counties.

“Once I finish traveling the Sunflower State, I will compile a travel guide called ‘Wandermore in Kansas.’ That will serve not only as a travel guide but a history book and living photo album, all under one cover. I believe it will be the most comprehensive guide to Kansas’s 627 incorporated towns ever created,” said Varner.

5, 6, 7 … — Wyoming, North Dakota, and Missouri?

After all 627 Kansas towns are captured and officially documented, Varner says he plans to head West.

“Wyoming is a guarantee. That’ll be state number five. We’ll see how long it takes me to put together the book and do the traveling for that. North Dakota will be state number six, and if I have a state after that, it’s more than likely gonna be Missouri, which I’m hoping to get to sometime in 2025. That’s the current plan anyway,” Varner said.

If you would like to follow along on Seth’s journey through Kansas, you’ll find his official Facebook page here, which features his latest town visits, photos, and comments.

“Highlighting these Midwest towns may seem insignificant to those who pass by them on a regular basis — but to the people keeping up with my tour, some of these towns are their whole world,” Varner stated. “That’s when I realized just how important it is to continue doing what I’m doing. It’s the first time I began to think, ‘You know, I could make a reasonable business and maybe even a living out of this,'” said Varner.

To learn more about his previous adventures through Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, you can check out his website here.