Towing and truck repair in Ottawa and across Franklin County, Kansas

Working the roads in Franklin County

I-35 and US-50 bypass Ottawa to the south and east, business US-50 runs through the city, and US-59 and K-68 have their junction in town, so most of Franklin County's major highways converge on the county seat; K-33 completes the county's list. Ottawa straddles the Marais des Cygnes River near the center of the county, and the levees and pumping stations the Army Corps of Engineers built in the 1960s stand along the river. Around it, Wellsville lies north-east of Ottawa toward Gardner, Pomona to the west, Williamsburg to the south-west, Princeton and Richmond to the south, and Rantoul and Lane off toward Osawatomie. Ottawa Municipal Airport is south of the city.

Freight in Franklin County centers on Ottawa. Walmart and American Eagle Outfitters both keep distribution centers there, BNSF provides freight rail service, and the Ottawa Co-Op runs a grain elevator, so trailers at dock doors and grain trucks at the elevator are part of the county's traffic. The river is the other factor. Ottawa flooded again and again before the levees went in, and the Great Flood of 1951 covered a large part of the city, so bottom ground by the Marais des Cygnes sits low and can be soft. South of Ottawa, the old rail line through Princeton is now the Prairie Spirit rail trail. In the city, give the street and which side of the river you are on; on the bypass, give the highway, your direction and the nearest exit.