Passengers on the northbound Santa Fe out of Arkansas City, Kansas, seeing for the first time the huge stone letters on the hill west of the tracks are attracted to the words CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. Then in smaller letters they read the Bible reference to the place in the book of Romans where these words are found.
Legend has grown up around the place, and the one man responsible. Fred Horton was a dispatcher for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1897 who looked upon the hills and wondered how they could be used to the glory of their Creator.
Begun in 1897, the text took seven months to build and whitewash so as to be seen from the railroad tracks. It was rebuilt three times over a 30 year period to get it the size and shape it is today. Each letter is 18 feet high, 12 feet wide, and three feet deep. It is about 475 feet long, and is built of stone from the hillside in which it stands.
This is believed to be the earliest and probably the largest message in stone in existence.
