Issue #97 February 2013 THE EXPLORER The Kansas Explorers Club is created to inspire, educate, and encourage the exploration and appreciation of Kansas...and to have fun doing it! Explorers are urged to look for the rural culture elements in each town — architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, customs, geography, history, and people. Kansas Sampler Foundation, 978 Arapaho Rd., Inman, KS 67546 620.585.2374 kansassampler.org [email protected] / [email protected] KANSAS IS 152! KANSAS DAY WAS JANUARY 29 105 DESTINATION PLACES It was a contentious time. The whole country was watching. Would Kansas come into the union as a IN 105 COUNTIES slave state or free state? The debates between pro-slavery and antislavery forces at Constitution In honor of Kansas Day, this will be an all-across-Kansas Hall in Lecompton were animated and ferocious. newsletter! If your quest is to go to every Kansas county, On January 29, 1861 President James Buchanan here is a starter kit of places that will help you see the signed into law that Kansas would become the 34th broad story of who we are and what we look like. state. We entered as a free state. Allen County: Humboldt’s interpretive signage helps us Learn more at Constitution Hall, 319 Elmore, in realize Kansas’s connection to the Civil War. Start with Lecompton. Open Wednesday-Saturday 9 a.m.- the Civil War monument in the town square. 5 p.m.; Sunday 1-5 p.m. kshs.org/constitution_hall A TIP ON DIGGING IN AS A KANSAS EXPLORER Find iQuest Shirts and a Quest Consider these Kit online at kansassampler.org. two scenarios: Buy Merchandise link 1) You like going out for a hot breakfast. Though Anderson County: Start at the Garnett historic depot the pancakes are good at your favorite locally- (8th and Main) and enjoy woodlands, prairie, lakes, and owned cafe, you’re craving something more. wildlife on the Prairie Spirit Biking and Hiking Trail. But what is it? Atchison County: The open-air Lewis and Clark Aha, maybe you want deeper Explorer satisfaction. Pavilion at Commercial and River Road in Atchison 2) What if you make it your quest to have a takes a visitor back to the history of our early explorers. pancake at every locally-owned restaurant in a Barber County: Flower Pot Mound is one of the high- 60-mile radius? Not only would you fulfill your lights on the Gyp Hills scenic drive. Start about 3 miles desire to go out for breakfast but you’d get to west of Medicine Lodge on U.S. 160, then south. observe different local rituals, taste a variety of Follow the small green signs. pancakes, and learn who serves warm syrup and real butter. You can bet everyone will Barton County: From the top of stare at you when you enter the restaurant. the Pawnee Rock state historic site Just tell them you’re on a Pancake Quest and imagine a train of covered wagons lots of good conversations and laughs will follow. headed to Santa Fe. Find it a half mile north of U.S. 56 on Centre. Choosing a quest and having a specific reason to cover a certain geographic area will help you see Bourbon County: Fort Scott Kansas with new eyes. It will get you to parts of the National Cemetery provides a tran- state where you might not have otherwise ventured. quil setting for Union soldiers, U.S. Have fun! Colored troops, Native American soldiers, and buffalo soldiers. Counties labeled on p. 8 Continued from page 1 Clay County: Appreciate the only remaining glebe in 105 Places in 105 Counties the United States 4 miles west of Wakefield on K-82. A glebe is a small tract of land traditionally given to Brown County: New wind farms are popping up all English clergy to farm to help provide a living. over. See the long row of old-fashioned windmills at Brown County Ag Museum, 301 E. Iowa, Hiawatha. Cloud County: Walk around the Butler County: The 1870s wood- 650-seat theatre en water tower in Beaumont and notice the gold reminds us of the steam engine decorative molding days and loading cattle on the and lights around train to ship east. the proscenium Chase County: Whether you arch, the brass rails take the tram ride into the prairie in front of the box to learn about the grasses, seats, and forest green curtains behind them. This wildflowers, and buffalo or hike to 1907 Brown Grand Theatre is a crown jewel of the stone school, soak in this rare Concordia. ecosystem at the Tallgrass Prairie Coffey County: From Coffey County Lake (2 miles National Preserve. Located two miles north of K-177 north on U.S. 75, 1 mile east of Burlington) you can and U.S. 50 junction, west of Strong City. view the Wolf Creek nuclear plant, the only one in the Chautauqua County: Walk the boardwalk at Hollow state. Park, Main and Sherman, in Sedan. It parallels a Comanche County: Take the scenic drive across creek in a beautifully landscaped nook and cranny. the southern portion of the county. It might be easi- Cherokee County: If you haven’t grown up in southeast est to start at Hardtner in Barber County and head Kansas, you’ll want to learn about mining in Kansas. west to Buttermilk (south of Coldwater) in Comanche Start at Big Brutus and it’s museum. Five miles west County. Be prepared to get lost, or even find yourself on K-102 from the K-7 junction near Scammon. in Oklahoma. The scenery is unlike any other part of Kansas. Cowley County: Inspiration Point at Camp Horizon near Arkansas City provides a breathtaking overlook view of the Arkansas River and valley a mile below. Follow Madison (Co. Road 12) out of Ark City 3 1/2 miles. At the fork, turn right onto 296th (Co. Road 6) for 2 1/2 miles. Turn right at the Horizon United Methodist Center sign, then 1 mile south. Walk south between the cabins for about 100 yards. Crawford County: Strip Pit Alley is a drive showing vestiges of old coal-mining camps and the strip Cheyenne County: Head north from the Benton and mining pits now Washington intersection in St. Francis, cross the restored to beautiful Republican River and turn right at the first fork. About water and wooded 12 miles from the intersection you’ll see one of the best environments. At K-47 and U.S. 69, 1 mile south views of the Arikaree Breaks rugged landscape and of Franklin, go east 4 1/2 miles on 620 Avenue to canyons. Kansas is not flat! the Missouri line, then 3 miles north to Mulberry, Clark County: The expanse of the mixed-grass Big continue 6 miles north to Arcadia, and 4 miles back Basin Prairie Preserve (the biggest sink hole in the west to U.S. 69. state) is plenty to soak in but continue the primitive driveway to St. Jacob’s Decatur County: Come into Oberlin on U.S. 83 and Well and find one of the you’ll get an “ah” as the rural landscape changes into best contemplative spots a thriving city below in the valley. in the state. Eleven miles Dickinson County: President Dwight Eisenhower west of Ashland, then 2 was proud to be from Abilene. Feel the power of his 3/4 miles north on U.S. presence by standing beside his statue between the 283 from the U.S. 160 presidential library and museum, 4th and Buckeye. and U.S. 283 junction. Page 2 Doniphan County: One of the great courthouse Graham County: Exodusters square sculptures in the state is in Troy. Peter Toth came west after the Civil War and carved an Indian chief with headdress called “Tall settled Nicodemus. Now a Oak” out of a 27-foot bur oak log. national historic site, it’s the only Douglas County: The Arch at surviving town remaining west of Haskell Indian Nations Univer- the Mississippi established by sity, 23rd and Barker, in African Americans. Displays open daily 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Lawrence is dedicated to the 415 Haskell students who Grant County: You’ll still find served in World War I. some water in the spring by the Edwards County: Want to stand smack dab between wagon bed at Wagon Bed Spring, a San Francisco and New York? Do it at the Midway popular oasis for Santa Fe Trail travelers. From USA sign at junction of U.S. 56 and U.S. 50 in Ulysses, go 8 miles south on K-25. Where the road Kinsley. You’re 1,561 miles from either city! curves, continue straight 3 1/2 miles on Wagon Bed Spring Road, follow signs to the west. Elk County: The historic 1893 wooden-plank iron- truss bridge offers a great view atop a water fall in the Gray County: Read about the first large-scale wind farm Elk River. Find it on the northeast side of Elk Falls. in the state at the kiosk 3 miles east of Montezuma on U.S. 56. Built in 2001, 170 turbines have been erected. Ellis County: This tiny unincor- Average wind speed here is 20 m.p.h. porated town, Pfeiffer, is home to one of the most magnificent stone Greeley County: Eleven miles west of Tribune, then churches in Kansas. The 1918 2 miles north, and 1/2 mile west is the Grand Army of Holy Cross Shrine has the tallest the Republic cemetery plus an interesting monument to Gothic spire (165 feet) in the state.