The College Hill Commoner by Barry Owens

4 Coming soon

to a bus stop near you—more signs, benches, three walls and a roof.

10 Before there were 5 At Clifton Square, bankers there were bison. A look back at the earliest residents of College Hill.

music & art festival draws an eclectic crowd. Shopowners rejoice.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 2 No. 5

COLLEGE HILL

• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW

APRIL 2009

THIS MODERN HOUSE A MODERN PAINTER’S VIEW OF THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD PAGE 8

Crestway, by Rebecca Hoyer. Hoyer, a painter and College Hill resident, rarely looks outside of the neighborhood for inspiration. Her paintings of the local landscape often reveal something new about the place we live. See story on page 8. REBECCA HOYER

CONCERT & LECTURE SERIES A SUCCESS TO THE EDITOR:

Over 200 people attended a special weekend series from March 6th through March 8th at Plymouth Congregational Church located at 202 N. Clifton. The series was the brain child of Reverend Dr. Donald M. Olsen, senior pastor. He hoped that it would be “a way to serve the membership and reach out into community to attract people with diverse interests and tastes.” A $45 ticket for the weekend began with a wine and cheese reception, followed by lectures based upon If Grace Is True from nationally known authors Philip Gulley and James Mulholland on Friday night. The audience applauded as the evening ended having been delightfully entertained by the humor and thought of the authors. Saturday began with light breakfast and presentation followed by a lively group discussion with the authors. During the evening participants were treated to a concert performed by the internationally known operatic star Beverly Hoch accompanied by Wichita’s own recording artist Burton Tidwell. Sunday service found a continuation of the theme begun on Friday with the same humorous approach. This was followed by a VIP luncheon with the authors. The afternoon provided a concert by the internationally known Merling Trio who filled the sanctuary with their impeccable blend of sound and was followed by a wine and cheese reception. The entire series was well planned by all involved, and a special “thank you” goes to Karen Root for planning and providing the excellent selections at the receptions and Howard Webb for his facilitation of the music selections. The success of this year’s series encourages this as an annual event for the church. Already contacts have been made for the next two years with authors and musical artists who can raise the level of consciousness of all who participate. It is worth looking forward to in the future. DENNIS BISHOP

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5 APRIL 2009

PUBLISHER

J ESSICA F REY O WENS

EDITOR

B ARRY

OWENS

CONTRIBUTORS J EFF R OTH

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER

Published monthly by The College Hill Commoner 337 N. Holyoke Wichita, K.S. 67208 316-689-8474 editor@collegehillcommoner.com www.collegehillcommoner.com

LETTERS

AH, SPRING! BUDS, BIRDS & LITTERBUGS

OUR VOLUNTEERS A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

TO THE EDITOR:

What a wonderful time of the year. Spring is here! I know it is because the Girl Scout cookies have arrived, the birds are making their presence be known and the trees are trying to make up their minds if they want to bud out. The sun stays around a little longer in the evenings. The grass, jealous of the baseball fields of spring training are trying to play catch up. Spring is here, I know it. I can see another great hint of spring. The vibrant colors College Hill Park offers. Oh what a sight that changes each morning. I feel grateful that I can see this time of year’s offering from my house. It amazes me that these various splendid colors are spread along the street curbs not only in spring but continue through the summer. The reds of Marlboro cigarette packs, the silver of beer cans, the yellows of McDonald’s wrappers and the browns of Chipolte bags! Yes, spring is here! There is nothing better in life than to hear a cardinal sing away this time of year. So peaceful until a window rattling stereo shatters your tranquility. Spring is here! DAVE FREUND

WEB SITE? WHAT WEB SITE? TO THE EDITOR:

I always try to filch a copy of the College Hill Commoner, usually in Lincoln Heights which I occasionally visit. I almost always find items of interest in your publication. I only got to page 2 in your March 2009 issue to have my jaw drop. I read your editorial three times [“Black, White & Read All Over”]. Who/what in the world would find something in your publication (Web site) about which to complain?! So, your publication doesn’t have the resources of the New York Times? Lord Almighty, it didn’t even occur to me that your publication HAD a Web site! I just enjoy it for bringing me news that the Beagle (you know what I mean) doesn’t provide. Just for one example, I've been puzzling as to whether or not the Symphony show house was going to occur on a plot of land which has pretty much been dormant for oh so many years. YOUR publication provides an answer! I will now buy tickets. Please know that there are intelligent life forms in Wichita, it just takes patience to find them. Keep up the good work! MARIAN CHAMBERS AND WAYNE HOOPER

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

’m partial to North Quentin, where the houses are bit smaller and closer together than most around here, and there is a picket fence or two and the narrow brick street feels like a lane. I imagine sometimes that I’m walking through a fishing village. Parts of Fountain, north of Douglas, have that vibe, too. But there, a number of the houses were built on a rise, so I have to deduct points for climbing the stone stairs. On the south side, there is Circle Drive, which is pleasant stroll anytime of year. A good sleeper selection is a tiny section of South Vassar behind an apartment complex. Things are impossibly close, almost claustrophobic, but charming. I get back there sometimes and forget where I am. But for sheer ease of delivery, I would have to go with North Roosevelt. The porches are low and easy targets. You can almost hit them from the sidewalk. Fortunately, I don’t get to all those places every month the way that I used to. Our delivery volunteers, some of which have been at it for close to a year without complaint, deserve a good deal of credit for delivering The Commoner to your porch. We can’t thank them enough for what they do, so we hope you’ll help us out a little in that department. Next time you see them out delivering please wave and say thanks or engage in a bit of neighborly conversation. Here is a list of your neighbors who have volunteered, past and present, to deliver the paper to your door: Colin, Natalie, Kristi and Clark Peterson; Fletcher, Max and Greer Kice; Erin, Christiane, Caleb and Hannah Doom; Carl Wilder; Ronald and Anders Wall, Julianne Matthews; Brennan and Julia Whitman; Ronald and Anders Wall; Chloe, Evan, Emily, Lowell and Jodi Pyle; Sam and Barbara Parsons; Terry Glover; Pat Malcolm; Stacey Malcolm; and Gus, Alissa, Ellie and Lennon Frey. It’s nearly certain that I missed a name or two in that list, so apologies in advance. Call us and we’ll run a correction and issue you some more rubber bands. BARRY OWENS EDITOR

WRITE THE EDITOR:

We welcome your letters. No subject is out of bounds, so long as it is local. Letters should not exceed 300 words and may be edited for clarity and length.

E-MAIL US: editor@collegehillcommoner.com WRITE US: 337 N. Holyoke, Wichita, KS, 67208 CALL US: 689-8474 ADVERTISE: jessica@collegehillcommoner.com, or 689-8474 CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS:

A photograph on page 8 of the March issue, which showed musicians Tony Ngo and Jared Brickman performing at the Bay Leaf Cafe, should have been credited to photographer Tim Marvin. We regret the omission. Spot an error? Please let us know. It is the policy of The College Hill Commoner to print corrections and clarifications. We hope that they are few, and that they will fit in this space.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

Bus Shelters and Benches on Their Way to Avenue Wichita Transit and Douglas Design District working to improve street features. BY BARRY OWENS When is the last time you took notice of a bus stop on Douglas Avenue, not the bus pulling to the curb in traffic, but the actual stop, where the sign stands? They are actually few and far between in College Hill. But regular riders know that one need only raise an arm to flag down a passing bus. That may change this summer as the the City of Wichita and the Douglas Design District are partnering to install more than a dozen new benches and bus shelters along Douglas Avenue. The bus shelters will be uniquely designed to brand the area as the Douglas Design District. The design district is a merchants association that aims to market the area as a shopping destination and improve the landscape with street furniture, lighting, signage and other features. Most of the shelters will be installed between Washington Street and the Canal Route. None of the eight shelters are planned for the College Hill area. Along with the shelters, 16 new benches will be installed. The bus stops will also be marked with new signage on distinctive poles, not unlike the vintage-looking light poles recently installed at Douglas and Oliver (but much shorter). The signs will be firsts for the avenue, which until now has gotten by with signs that served only as suggestions. “There are no designated bus stops,” said Dave Barber, advanced plans manager for the city of Wichita. “It’s sort of a flag down system here. Where ever there is a sign doesn’t necessarily mean that the bus stops there. It’s to let people know that there is a bus route, and if you stand by the side of the street you can wave the bus down. We’ve decided that is not the best way to go in this part of Wichita. We want designated [bus] stop

ABOVE: An early design sketch of a bus shelter, as proposed to be installed along Douglas Avenue by the Douglas Design District and Wichita Transit. Transportation funds allotted from the recent federal stimulus bill are expected to pay for the shelters. BELOW: A bench at Douglas and Oliver, of the type that will be installed up and down the avenue. BELOW RIGHT: Banners were installed over the summer to mark the district.

RENDERING: MC+W DESIGN

signs.” The district formed almost two years ago and first sat down with the city last March. Since that time, district members and city planners have met monthly to plot a course for rehabbing Douglas Avenue. In November, the city took their plan public, explaining their vision for the area by 2020. Since then, however,

there has been a slow down. “Since that time, a lot of things have happened. The economy has gone sour and we have diminished financial resources,” Barber said. “But this is a good time to plan, so when things pick up again we will be in position as a community to make improvements.” The bus shelters are already funded, Barber said, through federal transporta-

tion dollars provided to the city. It will be this month, though, before Wichita Transit commits to an installation timeline. Barber said it was likely that benches and shelters would begin going in this summer. “When we formed, we had three broad things in mind,” said Douglas Design District president Bill Jackson. “To make Douglas a better place to shop, a better place to work and do business, and a better place to live.” The first phase of that plan has focused on marketing. Last summer, the district installed banners on light poles along the avenue that branded the area as the Douglas Design District. The bus shelters are likely to be more visible. “It will be nice to have something out there that you can see and touch, something that makes it real,” Jackson said.

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?&#x161; APRIL 2009

Clifton Square Festival Draws Eclectic Crowd Last Monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Music and Art Fest Brought Out a Loud Crowd to the Quiet Square BY BARRY OWENS ne sunny weekend last month at Clifton Square burgers sizzled on the grill, music wafted through the parking lot and there was a hint of patchouli in the air. It was the Clifton Square Music and Art Festival, an event that brought together a disparate group of musicians and their fansâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;from heavy metal to R&B to folkâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and artists to the square for two nights of performances and displays. This was not the usual crowd. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Better get it before itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all gone,â&#x20AC;? barked Bruce Bentley, a glass blower and banjo player who sold his glass works from a table in the middle of the square (between sales he sang). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hey, is this carnival glass?â&#x20AC;? a man wearing leather chaps wanted to know. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Carnival glass? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s antique, from the 20s and 30s.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh, well this stuff was made just last month,â&#x20AC;? Bentley said. In the beer garden on the patio of Bay Leaf CafĂŠ, a couple of guys leaned on the fence, where one could be overhead saying to the other: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Been here before. But it was nothing like this.â&#x20AC;? Hundreds passed through, if not through all the music halls and galleries (housed in vacant spaces in the square) at least once through the crowded beer garden. Many wandered over just to see what the fuss was about. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even think of any other neighborhood where something like this could happen,â&#x20AC;? said John Vrana, who lives on North Dellrose. Meanwhile, the shops that remained open during the event saw a boost in sales. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where they came from, but I wish they would stay,â&#x20AC;? said Terri Windsor, owner of Garden Reflections, said of the crowd that passed through her shop. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the best weekend Clifton Square has seen in years.â&#x20AC;?

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Bruce Bentley, a glass blower and banjo player, peddles his wares last month during the Clifton Square Music and Art Festival.

PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS

Above: Eloise Crabb attended the festival prepared for Wichita weather with sunglasses and a pinwheel. Right: Musician Jon Gamache performs on a digiridu. The musician was one of a dozen acts to perform during the two day festival at Clifton Square. The event also included visual artists, from comic book artists to painters. It was organized by Bay Leaf Cafe and Fountain Street Productions, a local promotions organization and Web site. Another festival is planned for the Square in June.

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A new business has opened at the corner of Hillside and Victor Place, brightening up the long vacant glass storefront which had housed a day labor placement agency. The business, nuDu, sells clip-on hair extensions, in nearly every color and style you can imagine. “Black hair with blond streaks, blond hair with black streaks, blue hair with red streaks, I have it all,” says owner Pattie Malone. Malone opened the store, her first, last month. She previously sold the clip-on extensions, which range in price from $30 to $45, from a booth at trade shows and other events. The shop also carries boutique items, such as handbags, candles and jewelry. “I looked all over Wichita, I wanted something that was visible from a busy street,” she said of the location, which faces bustling Hillside and is just across the street from Sport Burger. Colorful drapes and window displays now adorn what had been a dusty, barren storefront. “I recarpeted, repainted, redecorated a whole bunch,” says Malone. “Now I’m just waiting for all of the customers to come swelling in.”

Spring Market set May 2 Blessed Sacrament Church, 3800 E. Douglas, will host a spring market, featuring gardening workshops, home and decor items, a plant exchange and much more on May 2, 8am-4pm. The annual outdoor market will feature gardening and landscape workshops, cooking demonstrations, a perennial plant exchange, flower sale, mower blade and garden tool sharpening, kids activities and a cafe. Tickets are $3 at the door. For more info: Heather Heiman, 684-9240 or hheiman@cox.net

Easter Egg Hunt in Park The annual Easter egg hunt in College Hill park, open to all College Hill families, is set for April 12 at 3pm. The free event is sponsored by the College Hill Neighborhood Association.

Recycling Reminder College Hill United Methodist Church, 2930 E. First, accepts recycling on the second Sunday of the month from 8a.m. to noon. Paper, cans, glass bottles, batteries—if it can be recycled, the church will accept it.

SPREAD THE NEWS Yearly subscriptions are available to The College Hill Commoner. Share news of the old neighborhood with a friend or family member no longer lucky enough to live here. Call 689-8474 for details.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

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ARTS

Weekend After Next, by Rebecca Hoyer

Tangled, by Rebecca Hoyer

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

Implications, by Rebecca Hoyer

THIS MODERN HOUSE A MODERN PAINTER’S VIEW OF THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD BY BARRY OWENS This one is from just down the street, actually,” painter Rebecca Hoyer was saying the other day as she found the page she was looking for in her sketchbook. It was a nice drawing, but hardly recognizable as a College Hill house. “What I saw was this whorly-ness here, and this weird tree here,” Hoyer said. “I sort of enjoyed that. The germ of the painting is in there. For me it is about trying to figure out how to simplify it down enough so that you can see the same thing that I see. I think of it as making a poem of a photograph, you’re trying to find the essence of it.” The essence of the College Hill landscape, to Hoyer’s eye, is the inter-

“

Rebecca Hoyer in her home studio.

section of the “organic and the manmade.” It is, she says, how the trees interact with the houses and vice versa. But in her paintings, leaves become shapes (the better to move the eye) houses go slanty, or the windows squint. “I don’t always do the most beauti-

ful house on the block, because then it would be a more realistic portrait, and I’m not interested in that,” she said. Hoyer’s one-person show opens this month at Steckline Gallery at Newman University on April 24. There, you can have a look for youself at a modernist’s view of the old neighborhood. Hoyer, who describes her style as an “edgy modernist dystopia” began painting College Hill (and a few other neighborhood houses) shortly after moving to the neighborhood from New York about 15 years ago. “It’s the old paint what you know kind of thing,” Hoyer said. “If I’m more interested in the shapes and how crazy I can make them, it is easier to do something that is very simple. A house is

something that is very obvious to people. Then you can manipulate it and make it more crazy.” She says she has little interest in moving on to other subjects when there is so much left to explore around here. “Every once in awhile I think I need to go paint some people, or maybe take a trip. But then you take a walk and find something interesting,” she says. Lately she’s been eyeing the space between houses. “You have that weird view right down the middle,” she says. “That is interesting.” Rebecca Hoyer’s one person show opens April 24 at Newman University in the Steckline Gallery. The show runs through May 15.

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

ARTS, BRIEFLY House Concert Series Classical guitarist Claude Bourbon is the featured artist this month at The College Hill House Concert Series, set for Sunday, April 19, at 4pm. Bourbon was born in France, grew up in Switzerland, and now lives in England. His style is described as a mixture of classical, blues, medieval, and romantic. To reserve a seat, call (316) 6847469. A donation of $15 to the artist is required at the show.

Percussion Ensemble The Wichita State University percussion ensemble, under the direction of College Hill resident and percussionist Gerry Schall, will present a concert on April 6 at the Duerksen Fine Arts Center. Billed as “Legends” the concert features performances by Tom Gauger, a former Boston Symphony percussionist, and Steve Houghton, who will perform on drum set with a percussion ensemble. “I think it’s not only important to bring this kind of music and these artists to Wichita State University but also to the whole Wichita community and the State of Kansas,” said Schall. “We are not New York or L.A. and Route 66 doesn’t bring artists in like it once did.” The concert will also feature per-

MAY 3

ARTS

formances by WSU students, and by the Wichita Boys and Girls Club Steel Band. For performance times and ticket prices, call the Wichita State University College of Fine Arts Box Office: (316) 978-3233.

Photos by Rob Compton A photo show opening for “People, Places and Things,” works by Rob Compton, a painter, photographer and College Hill resident, is set for April 24 at Watermark Books, 4701 E Douglas, during Final Friday.

Benefit Concert at Abode Live music, cocktails, appetizers and a bachelor and bachelorette auction are all part of an American Cancer Society, Banding Together for a Cure, benefit April 24 at 6pm at Abode Home, 1330 E. Douglas.

Dan Beck Paintings Uptown artist Dan Beck, whose brightly painted house and funky rock garden at the corner of First and Grove are hard to miss, has paintings on view through April at the Art of Healing, 130 N. St. Francis. Gallery hours are 12-1p.m. and 3-6p.m. Monday through Thursday.

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HISTORY

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

Wichita Indian's summer arbor and grass lodge, with front door shut against uninvited guests.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF ROTH

First Movers

The first of a four-part series that looks back to the early (real early) residents of College Hill. BY JEFF A. ROTH

t is commonly thought that lumbermen, grain millers, bankers, merchants and oil producers were the first to inhabit our beloved College Hill. But those who have dug deep enough, have discovered perhaps it wasn't a banker but a bison, not a miller but a mammoth and not an oil producer but a camel that first called College Hill home. All jokes aside, the evidence is clearly there that the first settlers didn't come to College Hill in the early 20th Century, but nearly 10,000 years before then. This is the first of four articles considering the question, “Who were the earliest residents of the College Hill neighborhood?” With a touch of whimsy perhaps, one can account for Ice Age inhabitants who were arguably the first residents of College Hill — 10,000 years ago. These would include the beasts of the

Pleistocene age, a period occurring at the end of the last “Ice Age.” Roaming this area were mammoths, bison, horses, camels…and their Paleo-Indian pursuers. Paleo-Indians (meaning “ancient” Indians), were here as evidenced by the artifacts they left behind. For instance, “mud balls” screened and separated from finer sand in local area sand pits have revealed spear points along with human bones and the remains of mammoths, camels and bison. Closer to home, a mammoth tusk was unearthed on August 5, 2005 during the excavation of the Kellogg Expressway east of Oliver. It was removed from an ancient creek bed, preserved by Wichita State University students, and displayed at Exploration Place. Artifacts such as these, when coupled with a time machine imagination, allows one to see these great migratory creatures carelessly jaywalk-

Mammoth tusk found near College Hill. Its cross section reveals 18 rings of growth and the age of its original owner.

JEFF ROTH

ing at Douglas and Oliver or foraging the grass and plants in College Hill Park…under the watchful eyes of families of spear gripping big game hunters. Might one consider these hunters to be the earliest residents of the neighborhood? If you accept the definition of “residency’’ as living in a place for a permanent or extended period of time (Websters), these nomadic hunters wouldn’t seem to qualify as the first residents of College Hill. Rather than stay-

ing in one place for any measurable period of time, they roamed the North American continent following the herds, which were following the seasonal changes, seeking available sources of food. To stay for an extended period of time would require year round food and shelter, such as the garden plots and grass lodges of the Wichita Indians. The Wichita Indians were a tribe that appeared in Kansas around 1500 CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

HISTORY

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE A.D. They were near the great bend of the Arkansas River when Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado encountered some of their members on a buffalo hunt on July 2, 1541 near present-day Larned, Kansas. At that time horseless, these hunters led the Spanish to their villages in the nearby river valleys. Coronado called them the Quivira and was impressed with their settlement of some 200 houses described as jacals (Spanish huts) built of poles and covered with straw. Evidence of the existence of these lodges has been unearthed near Lyons, Kansas along Cow Creek and along the Little Arkansas River near Little River, Kansas. Based on Spanish maps and expedition reports, some historians believe the Wichita settlement had relocated fifty years later to the Wichita area and was encountered by Spanish explorers Francisco Leyva de Bonilla and Antonio Gutierrez de Humana in 1593, followed by Spanish governor and explorer Juan de Onate in 1602. Onate’s official reported stated: “We came to a settlement containing more than twelve hundred houses… made of forked wooden poles joined together by sticks and on the outside covered with straw…We stayed a day at this pleasant place, surrounded everywhere by Indian cornfields and gardens…There were many beans and calabashes, and plum trees between the planted fields…It was thought that it doubtless bordered on the tropics, as the people we saw went about naked, although some used skins.” Were any of these suntanned inhabitants lodging on College Hill? Consider their lifestyle as reported to contemporary Spanish officials and confirmed later by today’s archeologists. The Wichita tribe led primarily an agrarian existence. The women raised corn, beans, and squash in gardens near their lodges. (They also raised the children, made the pottery, and cleaned the game for food and hides). The men hunted local game – deer, beaver, raccoon, rabbits and squirrels, and led tribal hunts on the prairies for buffalo. The tribe’s impressive layered grass lodges and garden plots were reported, however, more in the vicinity north of our two rivers’ confluence and east to Chisholm Creek (the Canal Route) rather than atop the valley’s hillsides. They undoubtedly chased game across the western and eastern rises, including across College Hill, but while the Wichita Indians perhaps deserve to be called the first residents of the Arkansas River valley, they probably weren’t the first residents of College Hill.

Over the years the Wichita tribe drifted southward and established villages as far south as central Texas but they were eventually pressured out of Texas by Anglo-American immigration into that region. They regrouped in Oklahoma. At the outbreak of the Civil War different Indian tribes struck up allegiances with either the North or the South. The Wichita found themselves aligned more with Union sympathies and in 1864 were caused by the Confederates and their Indian allies to flee Oklahoma back to their ancestral home in the Arkansas River valley. Were it not for that exodus, at that point in time, our city might bear another name. Upon their return here they met newly arrived trappers and hunters (and eventual town founders) “Buffalo Bill” Mathewson, William Greiffenstein and James R. Mead. The Wichita built their grass lodge village, joined in buffalo hunts, and traded goods at the newly constructed trading posts. Following the end of the war the U.S. government mandated their relocation to an Indian reservation in the Anadarka, Oklahoma area. This moment in time, 1867, closely coincided with the 1868 founding of the grass avenue and clap board town at the rivers’ junction. The town needed a name; various names were proposed. J. R. Mead argued, appropriately, that the name should be “Wichita” in the memory of its earliest known residents. The Wichita Indians can rightly be called Native Indians to this area, in the sense of aboriginal dwellers of this region; but in time they began to notice more and more neighbors. In the early 1800s the area started to host Immigrant Indians as well. These were incoming tribes from the east being pushed by wave after wave of settler encroachment from that direction, and government policies in reaction to that movement. The government signed a treaty in 1825 with Missouri’s Osage Indian Tribe to accept possession of the land in this area as their reservation. This immigrant tribe was allotted the largest reservation ever established in the territory, stretching from their new village on the Verdigris River near present day Independence, Kansas to the Santa Fe Trail’s crossing of the Arkansas River, near today’s Dodge City. It was effectively the largest “hunting and fishing lease” ever obtained in Kansas, and it included College Hill. Yet were the Osage Indians residing in the College Hill area as a primary residence or just a summer home?

They undoubtedly chased game across the western and eastern rises, including across College Hill.

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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ APRIL 2009

KIDS

The Dr. is in Photos by BARRY OWENS

Dr. Seuss celebrated a birthday last month, and the occasion was not overlooked at College Hill elementary school. Students got a lesson in how to draw the Cat in the Hat from cartoonist Richard Crowson, hats of their own, and a chance to sink their hands into green, gooey “oobleck.”

SHAPE YOUR BODY. SHAPE YOUR MIND.

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