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sunday, MAY 31, 2015 | The Topeka Capital-Journal
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Smaller towns working hard to promote state tourism
It makes me happy (the visitors) aren’t sitting at home on the computer, and they’re out doing things.” scott jury, of Wamego, who portrays Kansas plainsman Sky Moose at living history encampments
By Jan Biles
jan.biles@cjonline.com
JAN BILES/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Children listen as Wamego resident Scott Jury explains the skills and tools used by plainsman trappers. Jury, who takes on the persona of Sky Moose at living history encampments at area festivals, said he likes passing on the history of the state to others.
For several years, Wamego resident Scott Jury has dressed in his plainsman trapper clothes and taken on the persona of Sky Moose at living history encampments at area festivals. Earlier this month at the Kansas Sampler Festival in Wamego, he told passersby about his life, how he’s married to a Lakota woman named Wind Dancer (played by wife, Kelly, who is Lakota) and the discovery of their adopted daughter, Little Three Paws (played by daughter, Ruby), who had become separated from her parents while traveling the Santa Fe Trail. Kelly Jury said she hopes those who experience the encampments go away with a better understanding of what it means to be a Kansan and more knowledge of the state’s history. “I do it to pass it on,” Scott Jury said of the plainsman and American Indian history and skills they share during the encampments. “It makes me happy (the visitors) aren’t sitting at home on the computer, and they’re out doing things.” Getting people to turn off their computers — and the state’s main highways — to explore attractions and events in smaller Kansas cities and communities is a challenge. Oftentimes, tourism groups in those locations don’t have big
TOURISM continues on 5G