Harper, Kansas

Argonia sits out on the Chikaskia River in Sumner County, Kansas, and to anyone who remembers the periodic table it sounds like a tribute to argon, the invisible gas in your light bulbs. Clever name for a prairie town, except argon wasn't even discovered until eighteen ninety-four, and Argonia was platted back in eighteen eighty-one. The timing makes the element impossible. The real source is older and grander. The name honors the Argonauts of Greek mythology, the heroes who sailed the ship Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. A young Wellington lawyer pitched it, casting the new wheat town as a band of adventurers chasing fortune on the plains. So it's not chemistry. It's a Greek hero saga, stamped onto a Kansas wheat field.