Kansas White Way Auto Run

More information can be found on the event’s Facebook page “KANSAS WHITE WAY CAR RUN 2025” or by contacting Kash Brown (785-799-4254) or Wayne Mitchell (785-564-0421).

The next White Way Auto Run is scheduled for May 3, 2025. Preregistration for the event is now available. Registrations received prior to April 1, 2025, will include an event t-shirt.
The highway was named after its marker, an 18-inch white strip bordered with a 2-inch black band. The Kansas White Way later became Highway 9.
“It’s a fun event that allows people to actually drive their vehicle in a ‘rolling car show’ that stops in several towns en route to the final destination of Frankfort for the main car show,” Jasko said.
Hali Jasko is one of the organizers of the event. “My husband had been attending the event for years and that’s how I joined in as a participant/spectator,” Jasko said. “So before I was involved with helping plan the run, I had been on several of the runs. I’ve been involved in the event in some capacity since 2018. I was involved in the planning of the 2020 run that got postponed to May 2021 due to COVID. That is how we transitioned to the ‘odd’ numbered years versus the original ‘even’ numbered years.”
The last White Way Auto Run was in May 2023 and brought 210 registered vehicles to Frankfort, and a large crowd of spectators. “It is our hope that this event can continue to grow,” Jasko said. “Participants are mainly from Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri – but we’ve had participants from as far as Texas, California, Arizona, and Indiana.”
In the early 1900s secondary highways were being built to help span the country from every direction, north and south, east and west. A group of like-minded individuals conceived of the idea to organize a road that would link the bustling city of Chicago, at that time the manufacturing center and transportation hub for the United States, and a growing city to the west: Colorado Springs.
Now, in the 21st century, the Frankfort American Legion and a devoted group of volunteers host a biennial event titled the White Way Auto Run. This ‘rolling car show’ commemorates the original formation of the highway. Two caravans of vehicles start out in Atchison and Concordia at 8 a.m. and meet in Frankfort that afternoon for a celebration and car show.
By Russell Gagnon | Blade Staff Writer
On May 15, 1914, a meeting was convened at the halfway point between the two cities: Frankfort, Kansas. More than 500 people, including representatives from Concordia and dozens of other communities in Kansas, attended that meeting. The result: the Kansas White Way.