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A near perfect community of un-perfect people - Chapter One
1.
THIS IS NATURE’S WAY

Traveling along Highway 77 just east of Wichita, Kansas and south of Augusta, Kansas I was relieved to see that I managed to arrive just after and not during what appeared to be a rather nasty car accident.

While manipulating my Chevy Impala around the remains of the accident itself, I continued on with my newest adventure while hoping and praying that all parties involved in the accident were going to be safe and okay.

As a journalist/freelance writer, I was excited to have the opportunity to spend a few days in a town that many have been saying appears to be near perfect, kind of like a Shangri-La community in the heart of south-central Kansas.

Rolling along Highway 77, I continued my journey toward a community located just south of Douglass, Kansas just along the southern edge of Butler County and extending over into the most northern section of Cowley County.

The name of the community was Nature’s Way and it will most likely not be found on any maps older than maybe 2004.

This is due to the fact that Nature’s Way, Kansas is not only possible the newest community in the state, it may also be one of newer communities in the whole country as it only came into existence beginning around 1989.

I was being given the opportunity to visit the community for a few days and get a closeup look at what many say is the near perfect community for some of the most imperfect people.

During my research, I discovered several unique tidbits about the community itself.

For one, the community is evenly split right down the middle going north and south by Highway 77, while at the same time being split nearly dead even down the middle going east and west by the borders of Butler and Cowley Counties.

I discovered during my research inquiries that Nature’s Way has several interesting arrangements with the social, political and government support entities that control both Butler and Cowley Counties.

According to my research, the community developed special arrangements with both counties as to how to split resources such as sheriff department coverage, emergency management coverage, as well as any possible county roadway issues, an important issue since one of the state’s most traveled two-lane roads cuts right through the middle of the community.

Driving along, I continued to recollect some of my findings, stories, and commentaries found during my pre-visit research.

One of the more intriguing things I found was the appearance that whenever folks drive through, or better yet, take the time to stop for a visit within the community, they all seem to come away with a unified agreement that the town itself and the people within it appear to be nearly perfect in every way possible.

It seems that every person and/or business that one would deal with in the community of Nature’s Way, would always greet and give folks a sense of what life might be like when one would visit that ultimate fantasy world the books call Shangri-La. Those I talked to would speak enthusiastically over their visit while making it sound like they had found a place one could call paradise.

Not only does it seem as if everyone and everything within the community get along with each other, the community, also goes to great lengths to look out for others without the pressures of modern civilization and its numerous pains of emotions, differences, and predestined conclusions.

These near paradise references were the reasons I was driving to Nature’s Way for a visit with hopes that I could get the sense of Shangri-La, that near spiritual quality one referenced saying that the community had the near perfect blend of love, hope, faith, grace, and joy that so many faith-based philosophies aim to achieve.

It makes one wonder how the community came into being.

One of the many questions I was hoping to answer was the background of the community, realizing that it truly did not seem to exist on any maps before the late 1990’s and was just impossible to find in any history books due to being one of the youngest communities in the entire United States as my research found that Nature’s Way developed legal status around 1989 and did not become fully incorporated until late 1994.

It made me wonder as to how such a ‘near perfect’ community could exist in today’s time and do so in what appeared to be a near perfect collection of un-perfect people living life in near perfection and like one seemingly big, happy extended family.

Another point of intrigue was how the community within a few years had already topped out at the size it could be of not being more than 750-800 residents.

For anyone, let alone an inquisitive journalist/writer like me, the community offered so many questions as to its survival amongst the atmosphere of today’s world and structure.

Just how does it continue to thrive and survive?

How does one really find such peace, joy, harmony, faith, hope, joy, and love – day in and day out?

Questions like these and many more will fill my thoughts as I spend time within the community itself, mingling among the businesses and the people themselves.

As I drive through the town of Douglass, I sense myself closer to this unique community and with that I reflect more on the opportunity to spend time with the one person that all visitors seem to want to talk about after visiting Nature’s Way – Captain John!

Most of those I have talked to about Nature’s Way told me that many of my questions and thoughts would be answered and clarified by walking the streets of Nature’s Way, because it would be there that I would most likely encounter an elusive man (at least outside the community itself) in his mid-60’s by the name of John W. Ostfold – Captain John as they call him.

They say that if you happen upon the opportunity to visit with Captain John himself, one may begin to find answers to the dream, design, and development of Nature’s Way – the community for which he is the founder, dreamer, designer, and developer.

Many of those 50 years or older noted that meeting Captain John would be like an encounter with a lost twin brother of another very charismatic dreamer in bib-overalls – Sam Walton, the entrepreneur and founder of Wal-Mart.

Apparently, they say that Captain John makes it a point to walk the streets of his community twice daily whenever possible and when he does so in the mornings it will be between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. and in the afternoons it will be somewhere between 2:30 and 5:00.

I was told one would likely find him sipping coffee off and on throughout the week in any of the local eating establishments, all the while taking time without hesitation to greet and visit with all he may have contact with, especially those who he did not know and appeared to be new to town.

For me, I was lucky enough (after many phone calls and emails) to get a chance to talk with this Captain John a few days before my trip and found him to be very cordial and enthusiastic about getting the opportunity to share his dream and community called Nature’s Way.

While rethinking those two brief talks on the phone, I recalled what little I seemed to be able to find out about him as a person until he was willing to submit to me the day before my trip, an email with a full rundown of his past and history, the path that lead him to dream, design, and build Nature’s Way.

As I finalized my thoughts regarding my meeting Captain John himself, I bounced to the views of the uniqueness of the farm fields as I came closer to my destination.

I found myself shaking with excitement with meeting Captain John and hearing about his dream and visions that began way back when he was just a teen busing working alongside his parents on their 5,000 acres while still finding time to be a sports star at Douglass High School.

I wanted to hear him answer those many questions of the history of the community and how it developed over time from a large section of the original family farmland.
I looked forward to hearing how he settled on developing the community right along Highway 77 and bordering both Butler and Cowley counties.

So many questions looking for answers, with one of those being how he found success in developing his early visions into a community of near perfect living for so many seemingly un-perfect people, all living in harmony in Nature’s Way.

Here lies the story I have been waiting a lifetime to do, making un-perfect living into living near perfectly.
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