Travel Kansas 2010 by Susan Burdick

Discover the Sunflower State

In Search of Wildflowers

Experts Share Their Favorite Kansas Sites

Explore Amelia’s Atchison A Look Inside Abilene’s Mansions $4

Open daily: 9 - 5 Summer: 8 - 5 6 miles west of Salina, KS www.rollinghillswildlife.com 2/25/10

Your Passport to Discovery!

11:29 AM

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Locations: Salina • Wilson • Wichita SAHC-2016-2 2010 Small 4C Ad travel www.kansaswine.com • 866-225-2515

Th e Smoky Hill River Festival

Kansas’ Festival of the Arts Oakdale Park • Salina, KS

June 10 – 13, 2010

The second full weekend each June

www.riverfestival.com A project of the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission, a department of the City of Salina

hot spot GALLERIES CINEMA THE WAREHOUSE Downtown Salina

785.827.1431 | salinaartcenter.org

. , more! rts.. KOA Car Show o Sum p s m er F ry, k, K Smo amily Fun! Zoo, wine ater par ky H ill Ri w ve ver Fe

o stival, NEW Kenwood C

One of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Art

Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery Sharing the arts with the world through the life and vision of Birger Sandzén.

877-725-4625

www.VisitSalinaKS.org

401 N. First St. Lindsborg 1 to 5 p.m. Tues.– Sun. | Admission Free www.sandzen.org 785-227-2220

Smoky Hill River Festival

Harland J. Schuster

Around Kansas

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2010 Sampler Festival in Leavenworth books record number of exhibitors

Amelia’s Atchison

Exploring the hometown of Kansas’ legendary aviatrix

Some of Our Favorite Things

Kansans share what they like best about the state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Wonderful Museum of Oz

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Follow the yellow brick road to see the wizard in Wamego

Highway 36 Garage Sale or Bust

Pony Express Reaches 150th Milestone

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In Search of Kansas Wildflowers

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Curtain Goes Up on Kansas Opera Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Great Plains Theatre Celebrates 15th Anniversary . . . . . . . .

Abilene’s Mansions Preserve Glamorous Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Grandma Hoerner’s Reputation Spreads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Calendar Highlights by Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kansas Native Plant Society board members share their favorite places

Publisher/Editor

art director

contributing writers

Cynthia Mines

Susan Burdick

Les Anderson Sara Peterson-Davis

ON THE COVER Photos by Harland Schuster

Cobaea penstemon bloom on the prairie in Jefferson County, 20 miles north of Topeka. Inset: Abilene’s Seelye Mansion is a 25-room showcase of turn-of-the-century elegance. published by

Matrix Media Inc., a Kansas company. To have a copy of the magazine mailed, send $5 (includes postage) to The Wichita Times, 111 N. Mosley, Ste. 201, Wichita, KS 67202. To order multiple copies or for advertising information, please call 316-264-5850 or e-mail cmines@aol.com. © 2010 Matrix Media Inc. The Travel Kansas calendar of events is online at www.wichitatimesonline.com.

Harland J. Schuster

Sampler Festival attracts record number of exhibitors Three hundred exhibitors – a record number – will showcase what Kansas has to offer at the 2010 Sampler Festival May 1-2 at Leavenworth’s Ray Miller Park. One of the new exhibitors is Freedom’s Frontier, which will have a tent featuring portrayals by such historical figures as abolitionist John Brown as well as performances by the Lecompton Players. Alexander Majors, a Kansas City businessman and co-founder of the Pony Express who also was involved in other cross-country delivery ventures, will talk about the role of the Mahaffie stagecoach (photo above), which for the first time will offer rides at the Sampler Festival. Designated in 2006, the Freedom’s

Frontier National Heritage Area recognizes the importance of 29 Kansas counties and 12 in Missouri in the pre-Civil War era. Also new this year are Kansas artists’ and authors’ tents. In addition, more than 140 communities will display a sample of what they have to offer, and four stages will provide continuous entertainment. Started in 1990 on the Penner Farm near Inman, the Sampler Festival became a moveable Kansas feast in 1998 when it began moving at two-year intervals to other communities. In 2011 it will be in Leavenworth on May 7-8. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more info, visit kansassamplerfestival.com.

Colby, Belleville host 1930s Chautauqua Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties Chautauqua will be presented June 1-6 at Colby’s Prairie Museum of Art and History and June 7-13 at the Belleville Farm & Home. At the annual tent programs, humanities scholars portray prominent historical figures such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt and humorist Will Rogers. “The themes explored in this Chautauqua are as timely today as they were in the 1930s,” said Julie Mulvihill, executive director of the Kansas Humanities Council, which organizes the summer programs. The Chautauqua also features daily adult and youth workshops as well as a five-day camp. For a complete schedule, visit kansashumanities.org.

Concordia completes clay wall mural It took five years of planning and execution, but a three-dimensional clay mural featuring the history of the county has been completed on the exterior wall of the Cloud County Museum in Concordia. The massive mural is half a block long and 22 feet tall. The mural – which was sculpted out of raw bricks by designer Catherine Magel

of St. Louis and her staff – incorporates 6,400 Dakota clay bricks donated and flash-fired by Cloud Ceramics. The Whole Wall Artwork is one of the most ambitious public art projects ever undertaken in the United States by a rural community, according to Dana Brewer, president of the Cloud County Historical Society. She added that industry experts consider it to be the longest such mural in the nation. The mural includes many scenes from the county’s history: a biplane flown by Charlie Blosser to rescue victims stranded by the great flood of 1935, a German POW and a guard shaking hands at Camp Concordia at the end of World War II, the Brown Grand Theater, the Nazareth Convent of the Sister of St. Joseph, and references to the orphan trains.

John Brown photo exhibit on display After a 150-year absence, abolitionist John Brown is returning to Kansas – in the form of an exhibit of historical photograph portraits at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka from April 26-July 31. California scholar Jean Libby compiled the first collection of its kind to coincide with the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. The exhibit is on permanent display at Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia, but a traveling exhibition is showing at the National Archives at Philadelphia before it comes to Kansas in April. After the Topeka exhibit ends, it will move on to Lawrence (details were not available at presstime). Brown and his supporters eagerly pursued the new medium of photography to recruit followers and raise funds to promote the anti-slavery cause. The enlarged images in the exhibition show the various faces of Brown, from the cleanshaven wool merchant and surveyor of the late 1840s and early ’50s to the bearded patriarch, slave rescuer, underground railroad conductor and insurrectionist of 1858. There were no new photographs in 1859, the year he invaded Harpers Ferry with the intention of freeing slaves, but there are several versions – paintings and prints – from the well-known bearded

photograph, according to Libby, who said that it was the last known photograph before his death by hanging in Charles Town, Va., in December 1859. In addition to the exhibit, Libby has published a catalog with additional historical information about the Kansas abolitionist. The 96-page catalog may be purchased at the Kansas Historical Society gift shop or Amazon.com. For more information, visit alliesforfreedom.org.

Family Fun NEXT EXIT

Kansas hosts National Barn Alliance conference

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harold edgerton, Bullet Through King, 1964.

Art of our time: selecTions froM The Ulrich MUseUM of ArT Apr. 24 – Aug. 8, 2010 The best of the best from the museum’s collection

Margaret Bourke-White, NBC Radio – Microphone, 1935, Ulrich Museum of Art.

gordon parks, Muhammad Ali, 1970, Ulrich Museum of Art.

Barn lovers from across the country will congregate in Kansas for the fourth National Barn Alliance conference June 10-12 in Atchison and Doniphan County. Educational sessions on topics such as barn reuse, rural revival and agritourism will be June 11 at the Atchison Heritage Center. A tour on June 12 will visit six Byre and Bluffs barns in Doniphan County. A five-day Barn Repair Workshop preceding the conference will be directed by Trillium Dell Timberworks of Knoxville, Ill. For more information, go to kansasbarnalliance.org.

Art on speed AUg. 21 - Dec. 17, 2010 An international show of today’s artists explore the fast and the furious

free Admission 1845 fairmount street

on the Wichita state University campus

www.ulrich.wichita.edu

By Cynthia Mines

tchison residents have always embraced native daughter Amelia Earhart, who grew up there exploring the bluffs along the Missouri River. But, thanks to last year’s major motion picture “Amelia,” many more have become enamored of Kansas’ world-famous aviatrix. After the movie came out in late October, “attendance at the museum increased and we saw a lot of interest,” said Louise

Foudray, who has been resident caretaker of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum for 22 years. The movie starred two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Earhart. Filmmakers recently donated to the museum some of the clothing worn by Swank in the movie, including the flight suit with A.E. emblazoned on the back (below left). The items are on display on the first floor of the house where Earhart was born in an upstairs bedroom on July 24, 1897. The house was built in the 1860s and belonged to Earhart’s grandparents, Judge Alfred and Amelia Otis. Amelia’s grandparents were better off financially than her parents, and she and her sister Muriel lived with them in Atchison and attended school there. Known as tomboys, Amelia and Muriel were the first girls in town to wear gym suits and loved to explore the bluffs and caves along the Missouri River. Though she lived in different places, Amelia considered Atchison to be her hometown since she spent more time there than anywhere else. Her grandparents both passed away in 1912, and the house had different owners until 1984 when it was purchased by The NinetyNines, the international women’s pilot organization Earhart helped found in 1929, with the help of a $100,000 contribution

harland J. schuster

Amelia’s Atchison

A replica of Amelia’s Jenny Lind spool bed sits in the bedroom where she was born in 1897. The window looks out over the Missouri River.

by Dr. Eugene J. Bribach of Atchison. Earhart served as the first president of the group, which was named for the number of inaugural members. A museum was opened in 1985, but the house did not begin restoration until 1996. A National Historic site, the house is surrounded by other architecturally interesting 19th-century residences on the west bank of the Missouri River. A visit to the house by Muriel in 1988 helped restore rooms to the period in which she and Amelia lived there, from 1897 to 1909, according to Foudray. Muriel’s daughter Amelia also donated a few items to the house. “She told us what each room was used for,” Foudray said. And shared memories,

Amelia Earhart timeline 1928

Becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and the first woman to make a solo round-trip flight across the U.S.

1897

Born in Atchison

1922

Purchases her first airplane with financial help from her mother and sister.

1931

1932

Becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Marries publisher George P. Putnam, who had already published several writings by Charles Lindbergh.

1935

1937 Disappears on July 2, just weeks before her 40th birthday, while attempting an around-the-world flight.

Becomes the first person to fly solo across the Pacific from Hawaii to the mainland, and the first to have flown solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Visits Atchison for the last time.

such as Amelia teaching herself to read and their grandfather reading them stories until they finished their bedtime snacks, causing them to eat very slowly. She also told of playing in the carriage house, where they imagined traveling all over the world in the abandoned carriage. They also played in the off-limits caves along the bluffs. “Her grandmother always said that once she made up her mind to do something there was no talking her out of it,” Foudray said. “She was fearless, determined to accomplish something no one ever had done before.” Somewhat ironically, the former tomboy also became known for her fashions, and a beaded dress she purchased in Paris is one of the items on display at the museum. After becoming the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight, Earhart developed flying clothes for women. Her first creation – a flying suit with loose trousers, a zipper top and big pockets – was advertised in Vogue and she began designing her own line of clothes for women with active lifestyles. Department stores featured lines of Amelia Earhart clothes and luggage. The museum also includes photos of Earhart’s last visit to Atchison in 1935. The year was a momentous one for her as she became the first person to have flown solo over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was also the year she joined the faculty of Purdue University, which enabled her to pursue her dream of flying around the world because of the university’s help in acquiring a Lockheed Electra. Earhart began the mission in June 1937, and after completing 22,000 miles, or nearly two-thirds of the trip, she disappeared on July 2, 1937, somewhere over the Pacific.

The scenic town along the Missouri River hosts many events during the annual Amelia Earhart Festival in mid-July.

Earhart sites and events Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum: 223 N. Terrace St., (913) 367-4217, ameliaearhartmuseum.org. Amelia Earhart Festival: During this two-day festival, Atchison (population 10,000) attracts 60,000 visitors for symposia, arts and crafts, food, concerts and choreographed fireworks over the river, according to Jason Nichols, communications director for the Atchison Area Chamber. The festival is July 16-17 in 2010 and July 15-16 in 2011. Vintage & Experimental Aircraft Fly-In: May 23 at Atchison’s Amelia Earhart Airport, 816-223-2799. Amelia Earhart Earthwork: Created by Stan Herd at Warnock Lake in honor of the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1997. International Forest of Friendship: An annual celebration, this year June 18-20, honors men and women of aviation with children’s activities and a parade of flags, 913367-1419. The forest includes trees representing all 50 states and 35 foreign countries as well as a bronze statue of Earhart. For more info about Atchison: Call 800-234-1854 or visit atchisonkansas.net.

Chaplin Nature Center Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum Mountain Man Encampment Renaissance Festival • Historic Downtown Maverick Rodeo • PrairieFest Stone Bridge Tours • Railroad Heritage Days Model Train Show • Last Run Car Show Arkalalah Festival

For more information and schedule of events: www.arkcity.org or 620-442-0236

Some of our favorite Kansas things

Spring burning in the Flint Hills By Jim Richardson

y work for National Geographic Magazine takes me to the world’s fringes – to places elemental where life’s rituals seldom change. Kansas’ piece of the world’s fringe is its Flint Hills. A landscape at once subtle and dramatic, the

Flint Hills are burned by ranchers each spring to clear dead grass and small brush, mak-

ing way for a new and impossibly green carpet of grasses just a few weeks later. These crackling ropes of fire replicate the natural scouring wildfires of centuries past. They preserve the Flint Hills as one of our premiere national landscapes and as a place to carry on the age-old prairie partnership with cattle and bison, birds, wildflowers and insects. No matter where I go, Kansas’ own Flint Hills is always among my favorites. Photo below by Jim Richardson, National Geographic photographer and Lindsborg resident

Off the beaten path

arci Penner, the founder of the Kansas Sampler Foundation (shown above walking across

Elk Falls), finds big pleasure in little things:

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putting my foot on the brass rail at Brant’s Meat Market and chatting with Doug before I buy some sausage,

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shouting my name at Echo Cliff (near Dover) and hear it come bouncing back,

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sticking my toes in the clear waters at Shoal Creek at Schermerhorn Park and closing my eyes to imagine early-day Route 66 travelers stopping here to do the same,

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climbing to the crest of Point of Rocks at Cimarron National Grassland and imagining Santa Fe Trail wagons coming in to view,

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standing beside the Brewster Higley cabin north of Athol and running my fingers over the words to his poem (now state song) etched on the side of the cabin,

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climbing the steep path to the top of the bluff on the Kansas/Nebraska line

Savor the Solomon Valley

oan Nothern’s favorite parts of Kansas stretch along Highway 24 – where visitors can experience “natural Kansas at its unspoiled best” – from her home in Glasco west to Hoxie. Along the highway, 24 communities in six counties have

posted kiosks to tell the story of their area.

near White Cloud to find the survey marker,

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St. Benedict for the jaw-dropping view,

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City’s Twine-a-thon and World Famous Ball of Twine, the Sunflower Book Festival in Osborne, the Sheridan County Fair and Rodeo, the Jayhawkers’ Roundup and Rodeo in Hill City, the Rooks County Free Fair, Alton’s Chocolate Festival, and the Silhouette Black

having a picnic at the base of the Monument Rocks,

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taking the trail below the iron truss bridge at Elk Falls to splash around

In addition to the natural beauty, she enjoys many annual events, including the Kansas Storytelling Festival in Downs, Nicodemus’ Homecoming and Pioneer Days, Cawker

walking inside the St. Mary’s Church at

on the big flat stones,

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going in to any small town and just talking to the people. To learn more about places to visit in

Powder Cartridge and Rifle Meet in Glasco. For more ideas of places to visit along the

Kansas or to become an official Kansas

Highway 24 in the Solomon Valley, visit www.hwy24.org.

Explorer, visit kansasampler.org.

The Wonderful Museum of Oz By Cynthia Mines

he addition of 20,000 Wizard of Oz artifacts from a private collector in Chicago in 2008 paved the way to a year of record-breaking attendance, with 28,000 visitors from all 50 states and 20 foreign countries finding their way to the Oz Museum in Wamego in 2009. That made 2009 the highest attendance year since the museum opened in 2003, according to Mercedes Michalowski, museum manager. Also last year, the museum created an audio tour visitors could download to their iPods before visiting. Does there seem to be a favorite Oz character among visitors? “Interestingly, it seems to be fairly evenly divided between the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch,” said Michalowski, who has a master’s degree in museum studies. The earliest artifacts include the contract L. Frank Baum signed prior to the 1900 publication of his book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and the latest are the props, costumes and artifacts from the recent Broadway musical, “Wicked,” which tells the backstory of the Wicked Witch. A failed businessman, L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) scored a huge success with the publication of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book in 1900. The book was turned into a Broadway musical,

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and Baum wrote 13 sequels to the original book, which was translated into 40 languages. Some scholars speculate that Baum’s idea for the Emerald City can be traced to his visiting the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair, which was known as the White City. Down the block in Wamego is the Columbian Theatre, which was built by a Wamego native inspired by the 1893 World’s Fair. The success of a display

Wamego’s Oz Museum and gift shop are open daily, except holidays. This year’s OZtoberfest is planned for Oct. 2-3. exterior and Character photos by harland J. schuster

of Oz memorabilia at the Columbian Theatre in 1995 led to the idea for an Oz Museum. The museum was created around 2,000 items owned by collector and Wamego native Tod Machin. In 2008, the museum collection grew tenfold with the addition of items owned by Johnpaul Cafiero, a Franciscan friar from Chicago. Museum exhibits are arranged chronologically and by character, in the order that Dorothy met them on her journey to the Emerald City. Highlights of the hundreds of artifacts on display include papers signed by Baum; one of his books

autographed by Judy Garland, who starred in the 1939 MGM movie; details from the movie budget, which were to have been destroyed but which were donated anonymously to the museum; and two innocent-looking small rubber flying monkeys, which terrorized generations of children in the movie. Visitors are able to view two silent movies based on the books (one starring Laurel and Hardy) and two famous scenes cut from the movie: the Jitterbug dance, which survives only as a home movie, and the extended ScareContinued on page 12.

Planning your visit to Wamego Wamego is located 10 miles east of Manhattan. For more information, call 1-877-2-WAMEGO or go to VisitWamego.com. Oz Museum: Located at 511 Lincoln, 866-458-TOTO, ozmuseum.com. Open daily; admission is $7 for adults and $4 for youth. OZtoberfest: The first weekend of October features events and activities, including a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Columbian Theatre, oztoberfest.com. Oz Winery: A tasting room offers samples of such Kansas wines as Witch in a Ditch, Emerald City Lights, Professor Marvel’s Ruby Red and Yellow Brick Road. Co-owner Brooke Balderson, a Wamego native and certified pastry chef from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh offers private tasting parties with appetizers. 417 Lincoln Ave., 785-456-7417, OzWineryKansas.com.

Did you know? That movie producers wanted to cut “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” because they thought it slowed down the pace and it was undignified for a star to sing in a barnyard. Buddy Ebsen (“The Beverly Hillbillies”) was cast in the role of Tin Man because of his singing and dancing ability, but the aluminum dust used in his makeup made him very ill. His voice can be heard in some places on the soundtrack. Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard in the movie, appeared in four other roles: the huckster Professor Marvel, the gatekeeper of the Emerald City, the driver of the carriage drawn by The Horse of a Different Color and the armed guard leading to the wizard’s hall. In Baum’s book, the slippers were silver – MGM changed them to red for the film version.

Totos Tacoz: Follow the yellow brick road next door from the museum for a Wizard’s Quesadilla or Toto’s Taco. Don’t forget to take home some Cryin’ Lion hot sauce. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday, 517 Lincoln, 785-456-8090. City Park and historic windmill: Wamego celebrates tulips with a festival the third weekend in April. It’s a good time to visit the Schonoff Dutch Mill, Wamego History Museum and historic prairie village, a complex of authentic buildings from the 1800s, 785-456-2040.

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Oz Museum Continued from page 11.

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crow dance scene, which was edited for the100 1939 MGM movie. One of the most interesting 95 exhibits is one of three-foot plush Oz characters and the 75 box they were shipped in – they were sent from the Warner Bros. store in the World 25 Center on the morning Trade of 9/11 to Friar Cafiero in 5 Chicago. He’d visited the store a few weeks earlier while in 0 New York and they’d agreed to ship the discontinued merchandising characters to him. On Sept. 12, he called the Time Square Warner Bros. store to inquire about the staff at the World Trade

Center store. He was relieved to hear they had survived. He never expected to receive his shipment, but on Sept. 13, boxes holding the oversized Dorothy, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Tinman and Glinda arrived at his Chicago address. The exhibits guide visitors through the haunted forest to the Wizard’s chair for a photo opportunity. The characters and scenes from the movie are brought to life throughout the museum by likenesses and murals created by Tim Wolak and Cynthia Martin. An extensive gift shop offers books and all sorts of Oz souvenirs to take home.

Great US Highway 36 Treasure Hunt Find fun as well as bargains along 400-mile garage sale route By Les Anderson

y wife Nancy and I joined nine friends last September for the fourth annual Great US Highway 36 Treasure Hunt, a 400-mile garage sale that runs along the top of Kansas, from the western border in Cheyenne County to Doniphan County on the east. Mike and Lin Neal loaned their bus for the excursion. Before leaving, we created individual garage sale bingo cards, T-shirts and a sign for the bus: Highway 36 Garage Sales or Bust. We also drew names for a $5-or-less gift exchange on the last night out. We stayed the first night in Norton, then headed east with overnight stops in Belleville and Seneca (as far east as we ventured). The garage sales were great, but the games made it even more fun. We drew numbers at the beginning for our version of “Wheel of Fortune.” Mike marked one of his bus tires with 16 numbers, and put a piece of dark tape on the fender. Before a stop, each of us placed a quarter in a jar. If the tire stopped with the tape pointing at your number, you got the quarters. The garage sale bingo cards held items you’d likely see at a garage sale — or so we thought. We had little prizes for every bingo, though no one found every item. Several of us came close though – my remaining item was a cross made of egg cartons. Other “obvious” garage sale items that were never unearthed included: Notre Dame mug, moon boots, seashell light, crocheted toilet seat cover, Easy Bake oven, fuzzy dice, umbrella hat, rectal thermometer, Dr. Scholl’s corn pads, foot scraper, needlepoint toilet paper cover, Boy Scout or Cub Scout handbook, trumpet, bird feeder shaped like an outhouse, slide projector and a 50-plus-inch belt. It was a close call on the 44 DD bra, but one was found at one

of the last stops. And we were all pleased with our gift exchange items. Nancy received a ventriloquist’s dummy from Mike. If she practices, it might lead to a new career after her retirement as a school nurse. I received an old-fashioned chicken-catching

Author Les Anderson (third from left) and friends created a sign for the bus – Highway 36 Garage Sales or Bust – as well as T-shirts and garagesale-item bingo cards before departing on the three-day journey. The group also drew names for a gift exchange.

wire which I immediately hung on our coop. Besides the garage sales, we had three interesting stops along the way: the They Also Ran museum in Norton, where those who finished second in presidential races have a photo with a brief bio sketch; the Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings in Belleville; and the Weaver Hotel in Waterville. Those three attractions alone were worth the trip. My favorite was the Boyer

Museum, where the carvings of Paul Boyer, a self-taught artist, are on display. His animated figurines and wire sculptures with moving ball

bearings on tracks and bouncing on drums are amazing. The caretakers of the Weaver Hotel in Waterville provided a good tour, too. The three-plus-story restored landmark is part of railroad history since it sits adjacent to the tracks that once brought train crews, traveling salesmen and performers at the nearby opera house to town. There are 10 rooms available for overnight lodging at the hotel, along with a train ride over the Little Blue River and a great ghost story involving a worker, the wife of the owner of the hotel and a time capsule in a fruit jar found during renovation. This year’s US 36 Treasure Hunt is Sept. 17-19. For maps and more info, visit ushwy36.com.

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Pony Express

Summer events commemorate 150th milestone Photo by Harland J. Schuster

By Sara Peterson-Davis

t might have only existed for 18 months, but few institutions in the Old West have captured popular imagination like the Pony Express. Employing mostly teenage boys to ride across inhospitable landscapes, the Pony Express was an experiment that delivered more than mail. It delivered an adventurous image of the West that created legends – both true and false – of the likes of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. Kansas played its part in the Pony Express with 140 miles of the 2,000-mile trail running across its northern edge. Today, the state is home to two Pony Express stations located on their original sites – Hollenberg Station and Marysville Home Station. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express’ inaugural ride. In June Kansas will welcome a group of sesquicentennial re-riders retracing the Pony Express Trail from Sacramento, Calif., to St. Joseph, Mo. The Pony Express was created as a way to keep California connected to the rest of the nation with news and correspondence. Before the Pony Express, dependable mail service stopped at the Missouri River.

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The Pony Express delivered the mail in just 10 days by a series of riders relaying between more than 150 stations scattered across present-day Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. The first riders left St. Joseph, Mo., and San Francisco on April 3, 1860. In all there were between 11 and 14 stops – some permanent, some temporary – along Kansas’ stretch of the Pony Express Trail. Each rider rode 75 to 100 miles, changing horses every 10 to 15 miles before handing over the mail to the next rider. He would then take a load of mail from a rider coming from the opposite direction and return back to his home station. Today the riders’ route is commemorated by the Pony Express National Historic Trail. Visitors to the National Park Service website, www.nps.gov, can find driving directions, topographical maps and other information about the trail. In Kansas, the national trail follows K-148 Highway from the Nebraska border south to Marysville and then east on US-36 to the Missouri River. The Hollenberg Pony Express Station is located four miles north of U.S. 36 on K-148, and one mile east on K-243 near

Marysville is home to the only remaining Pony Express home station on its original site as well as this bronze sculpture created by Richard Berger in 1984.

Hanover in Washington County. A Kansas State Historic Site, the Hollenberg Station is the only unaltered Pony Express station at its original location along the trail. It was built by Gerat and Sophia Hollenberg in 1857, and was originally a way station for travelers moving west along the Oregon and California trails. The station site sits on 40 acres and features the original station building and a visitor’s center, as well as a hiking trail and picnic area. According to site administrator Duane Durst, the trail across Kansas inspired its share of legends, including one that takes credit for the invention of the doughnut. The young men who rode the Pony Express were romantic figures to many, but Johnny Frye stood out from the rest. “Johnny Frye was one of the first riders and quite popular with the young ladies,” Durst said. As Frye rode across the prairie, girls threw him cookies and treats in hopes of

catching his eye. But riding at breakneck speed, Frye dropped much of what was thrown at him. So, according to Durst, the girls started making treats with holes in them – doughnuts – so Frye could hold them on his fingers as he rode.

Ride re-enactments celebrate anniversary rre-enactment of Frye’s doughnut ride is just one of the events planned for the 150th Anniversary Re-ride Celebration at the Hollenberg Station on June 21. The celebration will welcome riders from the National Pony Express Association, who are making the cross country journey from Sacramento to St. Joseph. Along with re-enactments, the celebration will feature a presentation by Emporia State University English professor James Hoy, a recognition of past anniversary re-riders and special recognition of those who helped save the station in the 1940s. The celebration will begin at 5 p.m., with the re-riders expected to arrive at the station around 7 p.m. Aside from the June event, the station will present its annual Pony Express Festival Aug. 29. The festival features reenactments, historical demonstrations and a quilt raffle. The Hollenberg Station is open April 7 through Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Following the same path as riders, travelers can go south on K-148 to US-36 and into Marysville where they’ll find the Pony Express Barn Museum at 106 S. Eighth St. The oldest existing building in Marshall County, the stone barn museum is the site of the Pony Express Home Station #1. It is the only home station – the place where both riders and horses changed – still existing along the trail. The museum features the original stable, as well as an annex that was added later. The museum celebrates Marysville role as a Pony Express stop, as well as its history as a transportation hub along the pioneer trails and the railway. The museum is open every day April through October. Marysville’s downtown park features a statue dedicated to the Pony Express riders. The statue of the Pony Express rider and his horse racing across the prairie

was sculpted by Richard Berger in 1984. A nearby mural includes the image of a Pony Express rider that appears to move as the viewer walks by. The Marysville community expects to greet the re-riders on June 21 at about 9:15 p.m., according to Brenda Staggenborg, executive secretary of the Marysville Chamber of Commerce. While waiting for the riders, the public can enjoy a pulled pork barbeque dinner, a bluegrass concert, a pioneer sing-along, as well as pioneer crafts and pioneer games. The museum will be open late for the event. Re-ride ceremonies will take place in Seneca and Horton on June 22. Seneca celebrates its history on the trail at the Pony Express Museum, 4th and Main streets. Originally, Seneca’s station was in the Smith Hotel. The museum is located in the historic A.J. Felt Block, an elaborate Italianate-style cast iron storefront built in the 1880s. From there, the Kansas portion of the national trail continues on U.S. 36 through Troy, Fairview and Hiawatha before ending on the west bank of the Missouri River at Elwood. Although Elwood wasn’t an official

stop for riders, the town was a steamboat stop and holds the distinction of being Abraham Lincoln’s first official stop in Kansas Territory during his 1859 campaign. In the same year, construction of the first railroad west of the Missouri River began in Elwood. Just across the river is the Pony Express’ hometown, St. Joseph, Mo., and the Pony Express National Museum. While the Pony Express riders were making their way across the West, so were work crews stretching telegraph line to California. Once the telegraph reached the West Coast, it replaced the Pony Express as the fastest means of transcontinental communication. The Pony Express folded in October 1861. The brevity of the Pony Express only added to its mystic. Over the years the public’s fascination with the legend of wiry young men fighting the elements, geography and hostile natives to deliver the mail hasn’t waned. Duane Durst estimates that each year nearly 5,000 people visit the Hollenberg Station to see the site, hear stories and experience the prairie their heroes traversed.

Experience the

Simple Sophistication of

Hays, Kansas

eries Unique Eat

Dinosaurs Galore

Family Fun

Whether you are planning a romantic golf/spa getaway for you and that special someone, an exciting dinosaur adventure with the kids, or something in between, Hays has it. Feel free to explore our evergrowing Chestnut Street District with unique shopping and eateries, our collection of majestic churches in the area including the Cathedral of the Plains, or our world-class Sternberg Museum of Natural History featuring the famous fishwithin-a-fish fossil. Whatever your taste, Hays is the place to eat, drink and be merry!

Hays Convention & Visitors Bureau • www.haysusa.net • 1-800-569-4505

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ho better than to suggest the state’s best places to search out wildflowers than the board members of the Kansas Native Plant Society, whose mission is to educate the public about the indigenous plants of Kansas? For some, choosing a single favorite prairie or event was easy and for others it was nearly impossible. After much deliberation, Jeff Hansen of Topeka, who maintains the website Kansas NativePlants.com settled on Kanopolis State Park because of the sand prairie with soil derived from Dakota Sandstone. This gives the area a different makeup of plants than the tallgrass prairies of the Flint Hills and eastern Kansas. “You will see things like fragile fern, cardinal flower and arrowroot growing there,” he said. “In the dry sandy areas you will find bluntleaf milkweed, prairie fame flower and four-point evening primrose.” While these wildflowers can be seen in other places, it was Kanopolis’ rock formations and other scenery that made Hansen decide it was his favorite. Susan Reimer of McPherson

y favorite wildflower area is the high plains area east and north of Ashland. In the chalky area where Dakota verbena, loco weed and evening primrose contrast with the environment makes a memorable sight. – Sister Patricia Stanley, Ashland

very year I look forward to the Konza Prairie Wildflower Walk in early June when the beginning summer flowers are in peak bloom. On the leisurely two-mile evening walk on the Butterfly Hill loop, visitors see a gorgeous array of at least three species of milkweeds with their pink, white and orange balls of flowers; two or more species of evening primroses (some are gradually

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also took other factors into account when choosing Maxwell Wildlife Refuge as her preferred prairie wildflower destination. “It is a mixed-grass prairie in the Smoky Hill region of central Kansas (McPherson County) where the tallgrasses of the east meet the short grasses of the west,” she noted, “but it also has 200 head of bison and 70 elk, and conducts tram tours year-round.” She enjoys the entire blooming season, from fringed puccoon and cream wild indigo in the spring to the goldenrods, sunflowers and asters in the fall. Tram wildflower tours are offered at Maxwell on the first weekends of June and September. The KNPS organizes hikes, educational exhibits and demonstrations for the Tallgrass Prairie Wildflower Weekend at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. This year’s event is Sept. 11-12 and plans include programs on wool dyeing with native plants, edible prairie plants and handmade paper from prairie fibers. KNPS volunteers will also give guided prairie walks at Symphony in the Flint Hills June 12 and are planning events for the 32nd

Annual KNPS Wildflower Weekend, which will center on the wetlands and prairies around Great Bend. Shirley Braunlick’s favorite event is the Coblentz Prairie Foray in Douglas County on Father’s Day, June 20. The Lawrence resident notes that “this glaciated tallgrass prairie includes diverse native plants, birds and insects” as well as wildflowers and large red Sioux Quartzite boulders. The favorite annual event for Krista Dahlinger of Mulvane is the Cowley County wildflower tour in June. The rest of the year she likes to seek out wildflowers in state parks, fishing lakes and outdoor recreational areas. “There are lots of places to visit at a low cost,” she said. “Many of these places have never been farmed and hold a treasure trove of native plants, trails and picnic areas.”

coming out of their buds as we watch), two species of the delicate Venus’ looking glasses, and many, many more. If you time it right, you will reach the top of Butterfly Hill just at sunset. As they look around, a kind of hush falls over the group and a sense that something almost magical is happening. Everything is in harmony. – Nancy Goulden, Manhattan

favorite time is early June when cobaea penstemon, Missouri evening primrose and green antelopehorn dazzle the eye. – Iralee Barnard, Hope

not-so-well-known spot but not far off the beaten path is Marion County Park and Lake. This 153-acre lake is located a couple miles southeast of Marion. The south side of the lake is not mowed and has a spectacular display of wildflowers throughout the season. My

The large photo was taken by Harland J. Schuster in Comanche County. The inset photos were taken by Craig Freeman, Nancy Goulden, June Kliesen and Phyllis Scherich.

n the early spring woodlands of northeast Kansas, I love to look for the solitary pristine white bloom of the bloodroot plant. As spring turns into summer, the Grant-Bradbury Prairie, an 80-acre slope of native forbs and grasses just south of Topeka, is host to the amazing porcupine grass which has a needle sharp fruit the stem of which twists into a miniature wiry drill when you handle it. Then, as summer slips into fall, the darling pink buttons of the button

Other upcoming wildflower events include: May 8 Barber County Wildflower Tour; meet at Medicine Lodge High School at 8:30 a.m. Half day and full day bus tours through the Gypsum Hills, 620-886-3721, ext. 3. May 22 Tuttle Creek Lake Prairie Walk, 1:30 p.m., led by KNPS volunteers, 785-539-8511. June 6 Friends of Konza Prairie Annual Wildflower Walk, 6:30 p.m., two-mile guided hike of Butterfly Hill Trail, which is not generally open to the public. Tour led by Dr. Valerie Wright, KNPS board member, and docents. For reservations, call 785-587-0441. Sept. 11-12 Prairie Wildflower Weekend, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, features demonstrations and tours by KNPS members (photo at left by Ken Barnard). For more events, visit kansasnative plantsociety.org.

Some favorite places for wildflowers: Konza Prairie, Riley County Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County Rocktown Natural Area, Lake Wilson, Russell County Scott Lake State Park, Scott County Gypsum Hills, Barber County Buffalo Tracks Canyon, Lake Kanopolis, Ellsworth County North shore, Elk City Lake, Montgomery County Schemerhorn Park, Cherokee County Alcove Springs, Marshall County – Mike Haddock, Manhattan

gayfeather burst into bloom at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Cottonwood Falls and the Konza Prairie near Manhattan. – Nancy Combs, Holton

y favorite is Cimarron National Grassland, north of Elkhart, especially in May after spring rains have reinvigorated the prairies. Sandsage prairie south of the Cimarron River can be a kaleidoscope of colors, with spiderworts, puccoons, milk-vetches, evening-primroses, beebalms and beardtongues vying for space among the sandsage bushes gracing the rolling dunes. North of the river, on the shortgrass prairie, dozens of short, deep-rooted plants, perfectly adapted for their breezy,

drought-prone home, hug the buffalo-grass carpet, casting white, yellow, pink and blue hues across the shallow ravines. Throughout are yuccas – their white wands of flowers arising from bayonet-like leaves. – Craig Freeman, Lawrence

t wasn’t until my husband bought a ranch in Comanche County that I learned of the beauty of the midgrass prairie and the wildflowers associated with that area. My first spring living out here on the ranch was a real eye opener. It was a joy to walk to the mailbox in the morning to see and learn the lovely flowers that appeared on my walks. Early on were the Easter Daisies, then

the blue funnel lilies, Carolina Anemones and Cat-claw Sensitive Briar, each of them appearing as the spring days warmed up, and marvelously, the parade of new flowers appearing marched on as late spring and summer brought lots more of these and other wild beauties – Indian Blanket covering acres of ground, Scarlet Globemallow along the road side, Cobaea Penstemon hanging off the sides of cliffs – I loved them all as well as the flowers of summer and fall that follow them – too numerous to mention, but each a joy to see, especially the first of each species I spot each year. – June Kliesen, Wilmore

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Curtain Goes Up on Theater Restoration

he latest historic venue to preserve the days of grand theaters and traveling shows is the McPherson Opera House (right), which originally opened to a sold-out house of 900 for its first performance in 1889, just 17 years after the town’s founding. On Jan. 28, 2010, exactly 121 years after the first performance, the McPherson Opera House theater reopened with a special performance to thank volunteers, donors and others who had contributed to the 25-year process of restoring it to its original grandeur. When the opera house opened in 1889, it was one of the first with electricity and was acclaimed to be the finest between Kansas City and Denver. After 30 years of live performances, the opera house served as a movie theater until it closed in 1965. A collapsing exterior wall and sheriff’s auction signaled certain demolition. But a group of concerned citizens stepped forward and turned the tide of community

Other Kansas theaters that have been restored include: The inspiration for the Columbian Theatre in Wamego came after J.C. Rogers visited the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition. He bought several large paintings and artifacts there and constructed the two-story limestone theater in 1895 as a place to showcase them and host vaudeville shows. The theater reopened in 1994 after a $1.8 million restoration. Largescale paintings showing various kinds of commerce were restored at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000 each, according to Kayla Oney, director of marketing and events for the theater. Call 800-899-1893 or visit Columbian Theatre.com for upcoming performances. Right: Restored World’s Fair painting at Columbian Theatre. After being closed for 26 years, the C. L. Hoover Opera House in Junction City reopened in late 2008. Built in 1898, the former Junction City Opera House, with its distinctive four-face clock tower, is once again hosting local productions as well as performances by the Topeka

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attitude toward restoration. In 1986, the McPherson Opera House Preservation Company was formed and work began, literally brick by brick. The $2.5 million west portion of the Opera House, which houses offices, meeting rooms, ballroom and an art gallery, was completed in 2007, with the theater opened early this year. The theater originally had two balconies, though one had been removed while it was a movie house. The last phase included rebuilding the second balcony as well as restoration of a mural by G.N. Malm of Lindsborg that was added during a 1913 remodeling. Upcoming performances include: April 23, Brasil Guitar Duo; May 15, The Eric Vaughn Magic Review, Sept. 18, The Glenn Miller Orchestra; and Sept. 24, Eric Himy’s “Gershwin in Paris.” For more information about tours, tickets or renting the facility, call 620-241-1952 or visit mcphersonoperahouse. org. Trolley tours also depart from the opera house.

Symphony and touring groups. Call 785-238-3103 for more information or visit jcoperahouse.org for a calendar of events. Built in 1907, Concordia’s Brown Grand Theatre once again hosts dozens of stage productions each year. The restored 642-seat theater features gold decorative molding, brass rails on the box seats and a giant painting of Napoleon (the original owner of the theater was Col. Napoleon Bonaparte Brown) on the curtain. Tours are available by appointment. For hours and upcoming events, call 785-243-2553 or visit brown grand.org. Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre represents one of the finest remaining examples of the atmospheric school of theater architecture, which was developed during the first part of the 1900s. The theater was designed as a Spanish garden or court “made festive by music and torchlight.” Lights twinkle overhead. Though still being restored, the Orpheum hosts a busy schedule of live performances and films. Visit wichitaorpheum.com for a schedule.

Great Plains Theatre celebrates 15th season

n 1995 two New York actors started a professional theater in an 1886 church in Abilene. Fifteen years later, the Great Plains Theatre (GPT) attracts 14,000 attendees a year to the only Actors’ Equity theater in Kansas outside of the Wichita or Kansas City metropolitan areas. GPT is now led by Marc Liby, who joined the theater as an actor in 1997. “I was raised in Abilene and had plans to move to Chicago or New York and my mom kept telling me about a professional theater that had opened in Abilene, but I had no interest in returning,” he recalled. He also was skeptical about just how professional a theater in his small hometown could be. “I came back to act in one show and well here I still am 13 years later,” he said. “I do love it and feel honored to get to do what I love in my hometown.” The small size of the theater staff – which is supplemented by talent culled from auditions across the country – has its advantages, he said. “Being a small staff allows actors to have access to any of us and allows for direct communication,” said Liby, who became executive director in 2006. “And knowing how to produce theater with a small staff helps us weather economic storms better than others.” Finding professional actors willing to spend time in Abilene, Kansas, has not been a problem, said Liby, who auditions between 3,000 and 4,000 each year in places like Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City and New York. For those who aren’t familiar with Abilene, Libby tells them it’s like Mayberry: “Everyone in town is gonna know

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Marc Liby, executive director, makes a cameo appearance in last season’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

you’re an actor.” Sometimes actors are cast in two productions and find themselves rehearsing one show during the day and performing in another one at night. GPT provides housing for out-of-state actors and a camaraderie develops among the cast. “They do their best work when they come together like a family,” he said. “That’s what this theater tries to promote. It represents everything I love about theater.” GPT produces children’s and educational programming as well as eight productions during a main stage season that starts in June. To boost the budget and provide more local entertainment to Abilene – which has no movie theater – GPT will begin showing second-run movies this summer. The 2010 main stage season opens June 4 with “Man of La Mancha” and ends in December with “Church Basement Ladies.” In between are “Something’s Afoot,” “God’s Favorite,” “Run for Your Wife,” “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Baby.” For more information or tickets, call 785263-2903 or visit greatplainstheatre.com.

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Historic Lecompton Territorial Capital of Kansas 1855

Pre-Civil War Sites Open Wednesday-Sunday: Territorial Capitol Museum and Constitution Hall Territorial Days June 25-26 Bald Eagle Rendezvous September 23-25 Christmas Vespers December 5 Tours: 785-887-6148 Lecompton Exit east of Topeka www.lecomptonkansas.com

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Preserve Glamorous Past W Abilene

M a n s i o n s

By Cynthia Mines

hile Abilene is widely known as the boyhood home of President Dwight Eisenhower and as a cowtown on the Chisholm Trail, it also boasts several well-preserved examples of high society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Two of the grandest homes – the Lebold and Seelye mansions – both were named one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas Architecture and were the only private residences receiving the designation. Touring the more ornate Lebold home first gives an idea of what life and architecture were like in the 1880s before moving on to the more refined classic elegance of the Seelye Mansion, which was constructed in 1905 and furnished with many objets d’art from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Built in 1880 by C.H. Lebold, the 23room Italianate mansion went through several incarnations before being purchased in 2000 by Larkin G. Mayo and Gary J. Yuschalk of San Francisco, who needed a showroom for their business, Victorian Interiors. They reopened the lavishly decorated house – which has been featured in Victorian Homes and Victorian Decorating magazines – for tours in 2001. Lebold chose the site next to the railroad to build his mansion so that it would impress visitors coming into Abilene by train. The house was built in a villa style (with stone and cube shaped) common in Italy but fairly rare in this country. It was built with distinctive yellowish-brown limestone quarried a hundred miles away in Russell County. The mansion’s 65-foot stone tower was built atop the stone dugout where the founding settlers of Abilene had lived. In the basement, visitors can see remnants of Timothy Hersey’s dugout, the first home in Abilene and a food stop for passengers on the Butterfield Stage Coach. Mr. Lebold was an honorable banker, Mayo tells visitors, but went bankrupt in 1889 after five years of drought and a run on the bank that closed it overnight. He auctioned off the house for $3,500 (it had cost $18,000 to build) and it went through a variety of owners.

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Top and lower left, Lebold mansion; lower center and right Seeyle mansion.

A pool was added while it was a residence for single telephone operators in the 1920s. The residence also served as an orphanage during the Depression and as a boarding house for soldiers before deteriorating into a flop house with weekly rentals. The city threatened to condemn and demolish the house in the early 1970s but it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and restoration began. The current owners have meticulously

restored the ornate ceilings throughout the house and furnished it with Victorian antiques. “Ceilings were known as the fifth wall,” Mayo says, pointing to the paintings, carved moldings and stenciling that surround elaborate chandeliers. After a historical overview, visitors are shown all five levels of house, including servants’ quarters “below stairs,” private family rooms upstairs, and the elegant

sitting room, parlor and dining room where guests were received on the first floor. On the wide-open fourth floor that was once a play area, Mayo shows an assortment of toys found beneath the floor boards, dating to the house’s days as an orphanage. Tours end with a visit to the fifth level, which is the observation tower. While the Lebold house went through many owners, the Seelye mansion stayed in the same family for nearly 80 years. A native of northeast Kansas, Terry Tietjens, the current owner, had driven past the grand mansion on North Buckeye on visits to Abilene and longed to see inside. “I wanted to get in but so did everyone else,” he said. On occasion he made the three-hour drive to Abilene “to drop in to the city building to visit the Red Cross” where one of the Seelye daughters worked. “It took me 11 years to get a tour.” And once he had his foot in the door – literally – he solidified a relationship with the two daughters that led to his purchase of the house in 1982. He allowed the two elderly sisters to live there the rest of their lives. The two Seelye daughters – who were 8 and 9 when the 25-room mansion with third-floor ballroom was built – lived there more than 90 years until they died. They never married, presumably because “beaus were never good enough,” according to Tietjens. The sisters were in the same class at school as two of the Eisenhower brothers, but were in a different social class. The Eisenhower boys would not have been invited socially to Dr. Seelye’s home, though it’s likely one of them delivered ice there, Tietjens said. Dr. A.B. Seelye made his fortune as a patent medicine entrepreneur. His company produced a hundred products and was the area’s largest employer. He had a three-story Georgian-style house designed by a New York architect; after it was built in 1905 it was acclaimed as the finest home between Kansas City and Denver. It cost $55,000 to construct the house, and Mrs. Seelye spent even more than that at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair on furnishings, Tietjens said. The house contains most of the original furnishings, including Edison light fixtures, a Tiffany-designed fireplace and 4,000 pieces of Haviland china from Limoges, France. Continued on page 22.

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Abilene mansions Continued from page 21.

The mansion has 11 bedrooms, including several on the third floor where the ballroom is located. The Seelyes kept an orchestra under contract and after dinner on the main floor, guests would go upstairs to the ballroom for a concert or dancing. There was room for 30 guests to spend the night, which many did since the evening would end too late to catch a train back home. The house also had an elevator. The eight rooms in the basement include a Box Ball – five-pin English style bowling – bought at the 1904 World’s Fair. The wooden bowling lane is 40 feet long. A 1902 scoresheet and the game’s original patent hang on the wall. Tours include the gardens as well a small museum devoted to the A.B. Seelye Co., which operated from the 1890s to the 1960s making such tonics as Wasa-Tusa (which was 63 percent alcohol), Ner-Vena and Fro-Zona. Dr. Seelye was medically trained and a surgeon. He died in 1948 at the age of 77.

Abilene’s Architectural Gems

A locally published brochure titled “Abilene: Little Town of Mansions” points the way to 60 distinctive homes – five are on the National Register of Historic Places – showing various styles of architecture from the period. Many of the homes open their doors to visitors during an annual holiday tour on the first weekend in December. Those open to the public on a regular basis include: Lebold Mansion, 106 N. Vine, 785-263-4356, lebold-mansion.com. Open Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. (At presstime, a sale was pending so be sure and verify if the mansion is open before visiting.) Admission charge. Seelye Mansion and Gardens, 1105 N. Buckeye, 785-263-1084, seelye mansion.org. Ninety-minute tours are given 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission charge. Kirby House Restaurant, 205 N.E. Third, 785-263-7336. The house was built in 1885 by banker Thomas Kirby on the site of the home owned by J.G. McCoy, who brought the cattle industry and Chisholm Trail to Abilene. Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Abilene’s Victorian Inn Bed & Breakfast and Tea Room, 820 N.W. Third, 888-807-7774, abilenesvictorianinn.com. Built in 1900 within walking distance of downtown, the inn offers six Victorian-décor guest rooms with private baths and serves tea by reservation in the parlor. Trolley tours and more information: Daytime and twilight trolley tours operate May-October out of the restored Union Pacific Depot. For suggested itineraries and more info about visiting Abilene, call 800-569-5915 or visit abilenekansas.org.

T. rex bones + T-bone steaks

Take a bite of history! The third most-complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the world stands watch over Egyptian mummies and Alexander Hamilton’s tailcoat in the Museum of World Treasures. Or visit The Kansas African American Museum and learn about the nation’s first lunch-counter sit-in. Then after a day of museum hopping, sink your teeth into a succulent steak at the Scotch & Sirloin. Go Wichita and you’ll enjoy a unique mix of attractions and amenities. All at Midwestern prices. Visit gowichita.com for a free visitors guide.

gowichita.com The city you’ve been searching for. 800.288.9424

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Grandma Hoerner’s

Ahead of her time with natural and organic products n the early decades of the 20th century, Mabel Hoerner of Manhattan earned a reputation for her big-slice applesauce. She’d choose the firmest apples from her family’s orchard, slice them thick, add freshly ground cinnamon and nutmeg, and keep the chunks intact while cooking over a very low flame. In the mid-1980s, one of her grandsons, Duane McCoy, who lived in California at the time, decided to try and replicate the family favorite. He experimented until he succeeded in using Pink Lady apples to produce an applesauce where the fruit did not turn to mush. The only change he made to his grandmother’s recipe was to use fruit juice concentrate rather than sugar to sweeten it. He produced the applesauce using all natural ingredients and without adding artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. He found nothing similar available commercially and began marketing the big-slice applesauce under the name Grandma Hoerner’s in 1987. He moved the operation to Kansas, where the factory and gift shop are conveniently located just off I-70 between Manhattan and Topeka. Visitors can watch manufacturing as well as sample the products. “It was a craft to make big-slice

applesauce,” said Regina McCoy, Duane’s wife and director of national branding for the company which now has 55 products produced by 46 employees. “The first mission was to find an apple that held its texture at 200 degrees and did not turn to mush.” Grandma Hoerner’s was the first to combine two flavors, according to McCoy, and the line grew to include big-slice applesauce with apricot, strawberry, raspberry, cranberry and tropical fruit. The company added many other products, including apple butter, triple cranberry sauce, fruit pie fillings, two kinds of chutney – cranberry walnut and pineapple ginger – and dark fudge dessert topping made with premium chocolate, real cream and pure vanilla. Grandma Hoerner’s products are sold in 2,400 stores, including TJ Maxx, Marshall’s and SuperTarget, as well as some locations of Whole Foods. All can be purchased at the retail store. Grandma Hoerner’s is visible on the north side of I-70 at the Wabaunsee exit, 20 miles east of Manhattan. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call 800-350-9500 or visit grandmahoerners. com. The retail shop is open MondaySaturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. By Cynthia Mines

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Grandma Hoerner’s all-natural products are sold through stores such as SuperTarget.

Stay at Grandma Hoerner’s House he stone house where Mabel Hoerner was born in 1891 and raised by her grandparents came back into the family after half a century about three years ago when it was purchased by Hoerner’s great granddaughter, Rachelle Routh. Routh restored the home in Manhattan and opened it as the Strong Inn last year. The house was built by Henry Strong in 1867 and was known as a safe refuge for African-Americans. Mabel was raised there by her grandparents, Henry and Elenora Strong, who were abolitionists. The two-bedroom house at 1916 Beck St. accommodates six and can be rented by the night or week. For more information, call Routh at 785-313-5167 or visit stronginn.com.

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For a more extensive listing, including rodeos and barbecue cook-offs, click on Travel Kansas at wichitatimesonline.com.

April 1-18 112th Midwest Art Exhibition, Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, 785227-2220. 9-10 International Edible Book Festival, Hays Public Library, Hays. 9 -11 Nation’s Native American Pow Wow, Agri-Business Building, Arkansas City. 9 -11 Spring Fling, Civic Center, Ulysses. 10 Eisenhower Marathon, Abilene, 785263-3474. 10 -11 Art at the Arb 2010 celebrates the centennial of the Bartlett Arboretum, Belle Plaine, bartlettarboretum.com.

17 Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlanders Festival, Hoisington, wetlanders.org.

7-8 Chisholm Trail Festival, Caldwell, 620845-6666.

17-18 Civil War Sampler, Old Cowtown Museum, Wichita, oldcowtown.org.

7-8 65th Anniversary of V-E Day, Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum, Abilene, 785263-6700.

22 -24 Inge Theater Festival, Independence, ingecenter.org.

7-15 Wichita River Festival, Wichita downtown. 14 97th All-School’s Day parade, McPherson.

23-24 Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Film Festival at Safari Days, Chanute, safarimuseum.com.

15 Merriam Turkey Creek Festival, Merriam, 913-322-5550.

23-24 Kansas Storytelling Festival, Downs, kansasstorytelling.com.

29 Old West Fun Fest, Boot Hill Museum, Dodge City, boothill.org.

23-25 Kansas Birding Festival, Wakefield, kansasbirdingfestival.org.

29-31 Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad Steam Engine Run, Abilene, 785-263-1077.

24 20th annual Victorian Day, tea at the Weaver Hotel, entertainment at the opera house, 785-363-2515.

29-31 Fort Larned Living History Weekend, Ft. Larned National Historic Site.

30 -May 1 Santa Fe Trail Days, Larned.

29-31 Children’s Weekend, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494.

30 -May 2 KANZA Days, Winfield.

29-June 6 Empire Days, Garden City.

May

11 Sam Ramey, international opera star comes home for a concert, Colby, 800-611-8835.

June

1 Old Fort Larned Days, Ft. Larned National Historic Site, Larned.

1-Oct. 4 Flint Hills Overland Wagon Train

16 -17 Mennonite Relief Sale, Kansas State Fairgrounds, Hutchinson.

1-2 Kansas Sampler Festival, Leavenworth, kansassamplerfestival.com.

Storytelling Festival For the 17th year, Downs will celebrate the art of storytelling with a weekend of events on April 23-24. Located 90 miles northwest of Salina, Downs has welcomed professional storytellers from across the country and this year’s featured guest is Michael Reno Harrell, who tells Appalachian tales through bluegrass lyrics. A traveling trophy is awarded for the best tall tale each year. For a schedule, visit kansasstorytelling.com.

The hotel is unforgettable. The cuisine divine. Life is good . . .in the Flint Hills!

Experience

Grand Central Hotel & Grill

Cottonwood Falls, KS 800-951-6763 (reservations only) 620-273-6763 www.grandcentralhotel.com Winner of 2005 Kansas Beef Backer Award Facilities available for meetings, executive retreats, seasonal parties, incentives. suzan.barnes@sbcglobal.net

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Trips, El Dorado, wagontrainkansas.com. 4 Spring Gallery Walk, Junction City, junctioncityac.org. 4-5 Flour Power Family Fun Fest, Abilene Fairgrounds, 785-263-6688. 4-6, 11-13 Day Out with Thomas at Midland Railway, Baldwin, midland-ry.org. 5 Kids’ Zoobilee, Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, scz.org. 5 National Trails Day Celebration, Streamway

Trail/Merriam Marketplace, Merriam, merriam.org/park.

5-6 Butterfield Trail Ride, Russell Springs, DiscoverOakley.com.

5 Wine in the Wild, Sunset Zoological Park, Manhattan, sunsetzoo.com.

5-6 Phillipsburg Riverless Festival, Phillipsburg.

5 Big Brutus Miner Day Reunion, West Mineral, 620-827-6177.

6 Prairie Wildflower Walk, Konza Prairie, Manhattan.

5-6 Mulvane Art Museum’s Mountain/Plains Art Fair, Topeka, 785-670-1124.

Continued on page 26.

5-6 Prairiefest, Paris Park, Arkansas City, 620-442-5895.

...

The Oasis on the Plains Located at Exit 53 on I-70 • Colby Visitor Center

Wilson

The Czech CapitAl of Kansas

Celebrating 125 Years

2010 50th Anniversary Czech Fest July 30-31 # Many things to see and do # Lake Wilson For more information, contact the Wilson Chamber of Commerce at: 785-658-2211

• Prairie Museum of Art & History • Kansas Biggest Barn • Over 500 motel rooms Free information, Colby Convention & Visitors Bureau 350 S. Range #10, Colby, KS 67701 785-460-7643 or 1-800-611-8835

Mon-Sat

9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Sunday

11 a.m.- 6 p.m. 785-658-2602

For more info, call 785-258-2115 e-mail tricountyherington@sbcglobal.net or visit www.tricountycofc.com

Oakley, Kansas

Featuring 300 Kansas artists, craftsmen, authors and food producers at two locations: Wilson 1-70 exit 206

Sept. 25, 2010 Horseback Trail Ride, Art Exhibit, Parade, PEO Walk-Run, Carriage Rides, Aces and Sixguns, Quilt Show and more!

Buffalo Bill Bronze Sculpture 2nd St. and US 83 Highway

Twice Life Sized, Gift Cabin on Site

Topeka Travel Center Turnpike, 5 miles east of Topeka Daily

9 a.m.- 6 p.m. 785-379-0200

www.kansasoriginals.com

State-of-the-art with Art of the State

Hodgden House Museum Complex 9 historic properties • 785-472-3059

Ellsworth Village Mall

Welcome to Russell County

Antiques • Gifts-Espresso bar • Deli 210 N. Douglas Ave., 785-472-4659

Robson’s Card & Gift Shop

Visit, Shop, Dine and Stay

Hallmark Gold Crown Store • Gifts for all occasions 211 N. Douglas Ave. • www.robsonscardgift.com

Home of Garden of Eden, Bob Dole, Beautiful Wilson Lake, Antique Shops & More!

Paden’s Place Restaurant & Bar

Russell County CVB www.visitrussellcoks.com 785-483-4000

Family Dining • Chicken Fried Steaks Specialty 785-472-3643

America’s Best Value Garden Prairie Inn

Indoor pool, spa, meeting rooms, guest laundry 785-472-3116

C&R Old West Trading Post

Western wear • Antiques • Saddles • Accessories 123 N. Douglas, 785-472-3919

785-472-4071 • ecofc@eaglecom.net

Fick Fossil and History Museum 700 West 3rd St.

More than 1,000 shark teeth! Genuine Fossils, Folk Art, and Hundreds of Historical Photos

You will also enjoy:

Veterans Memorial Garden Annie Oakley Park & Cool Pool Monuments Rocks, Butterfield Trail Museum, and Keystone Gallery Nearby

www. DiscoverOakley.com

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10 -13 34th annual Smoky Hill River Festival, Oakdale Park, Salina, riverfestival.com.

19 -20 Prairie Lavender Farm open house, Bennington, 785-488-3371.

21 Pony Express 150th Anniversary Celebration, Marysville, 800-752-3965.

11-12 Buffalo Bill Days, Oakley, Discover Oakley.com.

19 -20 North America Grand Prix & Freedom Cup Shoot, Claythorne Lodge, Columbus, 620-597-2568.

24-27 Country Stampede, Manhattan, countrystampede.com.

18 -19 Jayhawker Days, Williamsburg, 785746-5618. 18 -19 Juneteenth Community Festival, Douglass Community Center & Park, Manhattan, 785-776-0244. 18 -19 Wah-Shun-Gah Days, Kaw Inter-Tribal Pow Wow, Council Grove. 19 -20 Historic Farming, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494.

19 -20 Burlingame’s Wilderness Weekend Festival featuring the All-American Lumberjack Show, 785-654-2414. 19 Birds, Butterflies and Breakfast, Chaplin Nature Center, Arkansas City, 620-442-4133. 20 Father’s Day Car Show, Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, Salina, rollinghills wildlife.com.

25-26 Territorial Days, Lecompton, 785887-6285. 25-27 Common Threads 2010, biennial quilt show, Century II Expo Hall, Wichita, pqgks.com.

July

100

1-4 Sundown Salute, Heritage Park, Junction City.

95 75

The Strong Inn

Historic stone guesthouse Birthplace of Grandma Hoerner

Fully equipped home available for nightly or weekly rental

1916 Beck Street • Manhattan Rachelle Routh www.stronginn.com 785-313-5167 The comforts and convenience of home combined with the rustic charm of days gone by.

KARVC 2010 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 5:11:24 PM

Buffalo Dunes

Open Year Round with Fun for the whole family #1 Ranked Municipal Golf Course in Kansas

Old Western Movies Horse-drawn Wagon Rides & Train Rides Special Kids’ Activities

Southwind E TH

99 . 399

Total Package

Featuring Cowboy Entertainment by Southern Gospel Sounds of

15 min. northeast of Wichita off K-254 Reservations required: 316-778-2121 www.prairierosechuckwagon.com

26 l

F CLUB GOL AT

2-4 Wild West Festival, Hays Municipal Park, Hays. 3-5 Independence Day at the Ranch, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494. 3- 4 Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad Steam Engine Run, Abilene, 785-263-1077. 9 -10 Fort Harker Days and Frontier Living History, Kanopolis, 785-472-4444. 16-17 Amelia Earhart Festival, Atchison, atchisonkansas.net. 17 Little Apple Jazz Festival, City Park, Manhattan. 7-18 Jewell County Threshing Bee, City Park, Mankato, jewellcountyhistory.com. 23-24 Bluegrass & Old Tyme Music Festival, Milford State Park, Milford. 24 National Day of the American Cowboy Celebration & Ice Cream Social, Dickinson County Heritage Center, Old Abilene Town, 785-263-2681, heritagecenterdk.com. 30-Aug. 8 Dodge City Days, Dodge City, dodgecitydays.com.

August 7- 8 Goessel Country Threshing Days, Goessel. 8 Annual Kid Fest, Wright Park, Dodge City. 13-14 Herzogfest, City Park, Victoria, herzogfest.com. 14 Art in the Park, Stevens Park, Garden City, 620-276-2587. 20-21 Ellsworth Cowtown Days, Ellsworth, 785-472-5566. 20-22 Cherokee Strip Renaissance Festival, Paris Park, Arkansas City, 620 442-6750. 20-22 Frontier Western Celebration, El Dorado. 20-22 K&O Steam and Gas Engine Show, Winfield fairgrounds. Continued on page 28.

You’re invited to Eisenhower wedding During this year’s Territorial Days at Lecompton, the marriage of Ida Stover and David Eisenhower, parents to a future president, will be re-enacted on the couple’s 125th anniversary. The two were married there on June 26, 1885, while students at Lane University. Eisenhower grandchildren have been invited to attend the 2 p.m. ceremony, which is open to the public. For more info, contact the Lecompton Historical Society at 785-887-6285 or LaneMuseum@aol.com.

l 27

21 Topeka Railroad Festival, Great Overland Station, Topeka, greatoverlandstation.com.

28 Big Brutus Polka Festival, West Mineral, 620-827-6177.

21-23 Tumbleweed Festival, Lee Richardson Zoo, Garden City, 800-879-9803.

September

27 Zoo Brew, Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, Salina, rollinghillswildlife.com. 27-28 Fall Gallery Walk, Hays Arts Center, Hays, haysartscouncil.org.

4 -Oct. 18 Kansas City Renaissance Festival, the shire of Bonner Springs, weekends, kcrenfest.com.

Oakley.com. 10-11 First City Festival, Historic Riverfront Downtown, Leavenworth, leavenworth mainstreet.com. 10-12 Flint Hills Film Festival, Junction City, junctioncity.org.

4 Adam’s Apple Festival, Lucas, 785-525-6288.

10-12 Great Plains Huff & Puff Balloon Rally, Lake Shawnee, Topeka, 785-554-2003.

27-28 Hot Air Balloon Classic, Finney County Fairgrounds, Garden City, 800-879-9803.

4 -6 Labor Day Weekend Quilt Show, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494.

10-19 Kansas State Fair, Kansas State Fairgrounds, Hutchinson, kansasstatefair.com.

28 Yoder Heritage Day, Yoder, yoderkansas.com.

5 Old Settler Day, Russell Springs, Discover

11 Turkey Creek Car Show, Merriam, merriam.

WELLINGTON’S

Chisholm Trail MuseuM HOURS: Spring Mid-April thru May

1-5 pm • Sat. & Sun.

Summer June thru October Fall

Hillsboro

1-5 pm • Daily All of November 1-5 pm • Sat. & Sun.

Arts & Crafts Fair

ADMISSION:

Donations Graciously Accepted

(We are supported by donations.)

Across the street from the Sumner County Courthouse, the Chisholm Trail Museum contains over 40 rooms filled with over 20,000 artifacts and pictures, most collected locally, some dating back to the Civil War and the early-day cattle trail that passed west of Wellington.

100

The Midwestern Creative Art Market

Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

502 N. Washington Wellington, Kansas 67152 620 326-3820

1904 Pope Hartford Single - 10 hp - 78” wb

“You need to preserve your heritage, ... or you lose your way.”

28 l

Chisholm Trail Museum 2010 Monday, March 01, 2010 12:05:05 AM

Exhibitors from 16 states German Food Fest • Kaffeehaus

For more information, call 620-947-3506 Or write: Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Association 109 S. Main, Hillsboro, KS 67063

org/park, 913-322-5550. 11-12 Prairie Wildflower Weekend, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494. 11-12 Haskell Indian Art Market, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, haskell.edu. 15-19 Walnut Valley Festival and National Flatpicking Championships, Winfield, wvfest.com. 17 Constitution Day, Eisenhower Library, Abilene, eisenhower.archives.gov. 18, 25 Grape harvest, Smoky Hill Vineyards & Winery, Salina, 785-825-2515. 18 Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair, 620-947-3506.

25-26 Louisburg Ciderfest, Louisburg Mill, 800-748-7765.

2 Chisholm Trail Festival, The Heritage Center, Abilene, 785-263-2681.

October

2 Art in the Park, Island Park, Winfield, 620221-2161.

1 Volga German Society Oktoberfest, Frontier Park, Hays, discoverhays.com.

2 Chisholm Trail Day Festival, Abilene, heritagecenterdk.com.

1 Fall Fest, Ulysses, 620-356-4700.

2-3 Louisburg Ciderfest, Louisburg Mill, 800-748-7765.

1- 3 OZtoberfest, Oz Museum, Wamego, oztoberfest.com. 1- 3 Mountain Man Rendezvous, Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, Canton, 620-628-4455. 1- 31 Haunted Atchison Trolley Tours and events, atchisonkansas.net.

8-9 Post Rock Festival, Downtown, Lincoln, 785-524-4934. 8-10 Columbus Hot Air Balloon Regatta and Columbus Day Festival, Columbus, 620429-1492. Continued on page 30.

18-19 Freedom Festival, Osawatomie, kshs.org. 18-19 Midwest Deutsche Oktoberfest, Ellis County Fairgrounds, midwestdeutschefest.com. 23-25 Bald Eagle Rendezous, historic Lecompton, 785-887-6148, lecomptonkansas.com. 25 Smoky Hill Museum Street Fair, Smoky Hill Museum, 785-309-5776. 25-26 McPherson Scottish Festival & Highland Games, traditional Celtic music, dances and highland games, Lakeside Park, McPherson, macfestival.org. 25-26 Rails ’n Trails Festival, Herington, tricountycofc.com. 25-26 Nature of Art Show, Merriam, merriam.org/park.

79 Friday-Saturday, 1-4 persons

FREE Parking • In-Room Coffee • Fitness Center Heated Indoor Pool and Whirlpool • Cable TV with HBO and Pay-Per-View Movies • Restaurant and Lounge 2098 Airport Road • Wichita • Take Ridge Road/Airport Exit 316-945-5272 Based on availability. Not valid with other discounts. Mention when making reservation and present at check-in. Rate doesn’t include tax. Expires 12/30/10

The . . . . . . . .McPherson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opera . . . . . . . . . . . . House ............

Enjoy live performances in nineteenthcentury elegance in an intimate seat auditorium with absolutely stateof-the art sound,lights and seating. Multiple meeting rooms including our beautiful Grand Ballroom to rent for every occasion.

Please visit our web site at www.mcphersonoperahouse.org for upcoming acts and other information or call 620/241-1952

17th Annual

September 25 & 26, 2010 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lakeside Park McPherson Centrally located, on I-135 between Wichita and Salina

16 venues of family fun

For more information call 1-800-324-8022 or visit:

www.macfestival.org S p e c i a l t rav el Ka n s a s o f f er

$1 off admission (you may photocopy)

l 29

Coming to Topeka April 2010

9 Sunflower Book Festival, Osborne High School, Osborne.

22-30 Neewollah, Independence, neewollah.com.

9 Candlelight Tour, Ft. Larned National Historic Site, Larned.

27-30 Arkalalah, Arkansas City, 620442-6077.

9 Old-fashioned County Fair, Old Cowtown Museum, Wichita, oldcowtown.org. 9 OZfest, Liberal, 620-624-7624. 9 -10 Great Plains Fall Renaissance Festival, Sedgwick County Park, Wichita. 15 -17 National Corn Husking Contest, Oakley, DiscoverOakley.com. 16 Prairie Harvest Festival & Barn Dance, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, 620-273-8494.

National Archives at Philadelphia November 2009 – April 15, 2010 ––– Kansas State Historical Society Historical Research Gallery April 26 – July 31, 2010 Full-Color Catalog ISBN 978-0-9773638-7-2 Amazon.com and bookstores www.AlliesforFreedom.org

30 l

November 5-6 Beetle Bailey Festival, Kansas Oil Museum, El Dorado, kansasoilmuseum.org. 19-20 Tumbleweed Bazaar Arts & Crafts Show, Ulysses, 620-952-2434. 21-Dec. 31 Winter Wonderland, Lake Shawnee Recreational Area, Topeka, 785-232-0597.

16 -17 Maple Leaf Festival, Baldwin City, mapleleaffestival.com.

21-Dec. 31 Isle of Lights, Island Park, Winfield, 620-221-2418.

22 -24 Tallgrass Film Festival, Wichita, tallgrassfilmfest.com.

December

22 -24 Night of the Living Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo, Wichita, scz.org.

1-31 Christmas Traditions Trolley Tours, Abilene, 785-263-2231.

21-year salute for Columbus’ hot-air balloon fest Columbus’ 21st Hot Air Balloon Regatta Oct. 8-10 begins with a balloon glow at dusk Friday in the industrial park on highway 69 while the balloons tether and inflate. Weather permitting, the first race departs around 7:15 a.m. Saturday. Races also are scheduled for Saturday early evening and Sunday morning at sunrise. The annual Columbus Day Festival takes place on Saturday on the Columbus Square. For more info, visit columbus-kansas.com/chamber or call 620-429-1492.

1- 31 Seelye Mansion Christmas Tours, Abilene, 785-263-1084. 2 Kaw Mission Christmas, Council Grove.

History Comes Alive in Ulysses & Grant County

3-4, 10 -11 Victorian Christmas, Old Cowtown Museum, Wichita, oldcowtown.org.

4 - 5 Folk Art Festival, Liberal, 620-624-3743.

isitors who take the Cimarron Cutoff from the Santa Fe Trail find themselves at the Lower Spring campsite nestled in the heart of the Cimarron River valley, a site now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

5 Christmas in the Cabin, Dickinson County Heritage Center, Abilene, heritagecenterdk.com.

Stop and Stay Awhile Grant County offers superb

5 Christmas Vespers, Historic Lecompton, lecomptonkansas.com.

hunting and shopping as well as a variety of lodging options, including Bar Lazy L B&B, Fortâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cedar View, Peddlersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Inn Motel, Sands Motor Inn, Single Tree Inn and Wagon Bed Inn.

4 Christmas Open House, McPherson Museum, mcphersonmuseum.org. 4 Victorian Holiday Tea, Kirby House, Abilene, 785-263-7336.

6 Artists Studio Christmas Open House, Lindsborg, redbarnstudio.org. 9 Weinachtsfest (Christmas Fest), Russell, russellmainstreet.org. 11 Lucia Fest, Lindsborg, 888-227-2227. 12 Candlelight Vintage Homes Tour, Leavenworth, leavenworthhistory.org. 12 Cathedral Christmas Concert, St. Fidelis Church, Victoria, 785-628-4258.

Jeff Trotman portrays settler Jedediah Smith along the Santa Fe Trail.

Historic Adobe Museum

An interpretive center for the Santa Fe Trail which includes the Hotel Edwards. 300 E. Oklahoma, (620) 356-3009. Open daily (except major holidays). For information on planning your visit call (620) 356-4700; or visit us on the web at www.ulysseschamber.org

For a more extensive listing, including rodeos and barbecue cook-offs, click on Travel Kansas at wichitatimesonline.com.

mention this ad for visitor discounts

100 95 75

25 5 0

Coronado Quivera Museum 2010 Wednesday, March 10, 2010 1:19:48 AM

l 31

Listed by town or county, does not include calendar listings.

Fort Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Marion County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Garden City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Marysville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15

Abilene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3, 19, 20-22

Geary County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

McPherson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18, 29

Arkansas City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Grant County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Merriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Ashland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Hays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Norton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Atchison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 6-8, 27

Herington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Oakley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Barber County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Highway 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 12

Oberlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Belleville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 13

Highway 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper . . . . . . 26

Bonner Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Hillsboro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Pretty Prairie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Colby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 25

Junction City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 28

Rice County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 30

Kansas B&B Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Russell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Concordia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 18, 30

Kanopolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

RV Parks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Cottonwood Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Kansas City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Salina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside front cover

Council Grove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Sampler Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 4

Cowley County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Leavenworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 4

Seneca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Dodge City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, back cover

Lecompton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 27

Solomon Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 12

Downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Lindsborg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside front cover

Sterling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Ellsworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Lyons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Topeka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 4, 16, 30

El Dorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Manhattan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 17, 23, 24, 26

Ulysses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Wamego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-12, 18

Season Tickets & Gift Certificates on Sale NOW!

Waterville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Wellington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP

Wichita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 9, 18, 22, 29, 32 Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Wyandotte County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Call 2010 SEASON

316-265-3107

or visit us at www.MTWichita.org

BE A WEEKEND PIONEER! • Scheduled overnight trips May through September • Special event excursions for schools, clubs • Day trips available • Prairie period re-enactors and entertainers • Authentic teams, vehicles and equipment • Hearty campfire cooked, Dutch oven meals

Schedules Available Now P.O. Box 1076 • El Dorado, KS 67042 www.wagontrainkansas.com

(316) 321-6300 32 l

Kansas. Conveniently located all around our hotels.

Visit Kansas and save at participating Choice Hotels. When you visit participating Choice hotels throughout Kansas, you will save. And with over 50 locations throughout Kansas, we make it easy to fit your travel plans and budget. Call today and ask for the Thanks for Traveling Rate or for hotel information, visit us online at choicehotels.com/ kansas-hotels.

877.424.4777 Ask for the Thanks for Traveling Rate choicehotels.com/ kansas-hotels

Advance reservations required. Offer not available online. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. Subject to availability at participating hotels throughout Kansas through 12/31/2010. ÂŠ 2010 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved.

4000 West Comanche St. | 877.906.0777 | www.boothillcasino.com

DODGE CITY, KS Located in historic Dodge City, KS, we offer 13 table games, featuring Blackjack, Craps, Poker, Three-Card Poker, and Roulette, and over 580 slot machines, now including VIDEO POKER! Experience the home-cookin’ from our Firesides Restaurant, now serving a weekend Breakfast Buffet on Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and don’t forget the Fried Chicken Feast Night every Sunday! Your visit won’t be complete without a stop at the General Store! Take home a memento of your experience with a souvenir from our fun selection of games, apparel and accessories! All games owned and operated by the Kansas Lottery. Copyright © 2010, BHCMC, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Must be 21 to Enter.