Paola, KS, November 2025
I am notorious about finding local activities. Today was no different.
Paola Kansas is about 10 miles from Hillsdale State Park. The town has a population of around 5,800 people. The main street stores surround the Town Park.
Since it was just Halloween, John immediately noticed the sign “Potawatomi Trail of Death”. In 1838, the Potawatomi tribe was forced to leave Indiana and march 660 miles in 61 days to Kansas. Over 40 people (mostly kids) died during this march. When they arrived in Kansas, the next struggle was the major differences between Indiana and Kansas. Plants in Indiana did not grow or grow well in Kansas. Kansas did not have the same trees which made making housing difficult. The town has various signs throughout with trail information.
The Town Square Craft Show was held in a renovated older building. What I liked is that the building still had the metal roof, beautiful wood steps and brick wall accents. The craft show had probably >40 vendors spread-out between the 3 floors.
The craft show had the typical variety of craft show items including jewelry, clothing items, sewn items. like gnomes, lots of items advertising various sports teams, Pampered Chef, Tupperware, etc. I took pictures of the various items I thought were interesting.
I really wanted to buy a Dammit Doll for Steve. Then tell him instead of throwing the computer when frustrated to grab the Dammit Doll Slam it and yell Dammit!!
We have a friend in Ohio who is obsessed with Candy Apple & Co apples. She will buy 10 apples at a time to enjoy. Click the link to see the fancy apples they make: All Specialty Apples | Mysite. At the craft show we saw fake candy apples and thought of her.
Wreaths were everywhere for every occasion. One of my favorites has a cow in the middle, but it was selling for $130 (wow). I also really liked the snowman wreath.
Like all crafts shows, there were baked goods. Most of the baked goods were artisan vs. general home baker items that someone like me would make. I didn’t take pictures of the table dedicated to sour dough bread. The cheapest loaf of bread was $8 but they looked really good. There was another table with sweet treats that were so well decorated I would hate to mess them up by digging a fork into them. The top 2 were double layer cakes not pies 🙂
The selfie shows some of the fancy roof tiles and woodwork.
