Rainy Saturday

I will admit on these adventures that I am a wimp.The Plan for today was for me to visit at least 5 little towns in Pottawatomie County, the County that borders Shawnee County to the North and West.Possible areas of exploration included a 290 year oak tree,a WW1 doubghboy statue,several building in desperate need of restoration that if the websites I was looking at are out of day,they may not be there.Wamego is the home of an incredible looking (from the pictures anyway) park anchored at one end by a Dutch Windmill.



It rained in the morning and didn't stop afternoon,it was an inch in my mom's rain gauge and that was before it stopped.It wasn't a threatening thunderstorm,it was more like a fall rain.I envisioned myself in a few hours at the Oregon Trail Nature Park looking for wagon ruts in a muddy field. Everything plans was outdoors,so I went to Plan B, a local attraction of building that had been moved to a site, a bluff overlooking 1-70 here in Topeka.That seemed to be a lot of time walking around outdoors and that suddenly seemed to rate 0 on the fun scale. So I went to Plan C,which I made up on the fly.I visited the Kansas State Historical Society Museum.



Located off the 1-70 Wanamaker exit,for some reason Topeka had decided to build almost every store and theme restaurant on Wanamaker,so they Museum sits tucked away from Shopping paradise in a small valley set against the first miles laid of 1-70 in the 50's.The grounds occupy a Nature Trail (Rain,didn't go), a Pottawatomie Mission and the State Achieves and Museum.



I had seen this several years ago,but among the donation is the desk used by Lou Grant in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".Lou Grant was given life in several Emmy winning performances by Edward Asner,a Wyandotte County native.
http://www.kshs.org/cool3/asnerdesk.htm

The desk is not current in display. They feature a themed exhibit every year,previous years included Bleeding Kansas in 2004 (sesquicentennial year), Kansas in the Movies ,Sports in the movies, and this year Natural Disaster (more later).




The regular part of the Musuem is divided into Rooms covering in order the History of Kansas from Indians,Coronado to a display of Pop Culture from the 70's and 80's.Indian Artifacts include a life size Ti pi and Mud Hut. Arrowheads,broken pots,hatchets and maps detailing the migration forced and otherwise of Indian Tribes.

From Coronado to Lewis and Clark to the Santa Fe/Oregon/California Trails with a Life sized Conestoga Wagon to a Buffalo which as the display case says "What they saw". An exhibit tells of how travels had to discard what they were carrying along the way, a house clock, a chair and tea cups are enclosed in the display , I always wonder if the settlers throwing out something that meant so much to them could have ever imagined it would end up in a museum some day, and for that matter why some else didn't pick it up.


Then of course we come to bleeding Kansas, after reading so much lately about the bogus elections,It was a thrill to see a wooden ballot box and the multi colored ballots used. In the picture we see a hopeful flag pleading for Kansas to be the 34th Star "Admit Me Free" it implores.The Cannon was used in the sack of Lawrence in 1856and a tombstone of someone who didn't make it out of Bleeding Kansas.

The display also features a Chair John Brown sat on,various flags ,banners and guns of course.The display focusing on the Underground features a barrel where a runaway slave hid for 6 Weeks.Then we move into the Civil War ,the Immigration wave and the railroad.


To anyone who can't tell the train pictured below is indoors,It was a major media story when it was brought inside in the late 80's or early 90's.It's an actual train engine and two or three cars.With good reason it's one of the most popular exhibits in the museum,you can walk beside the train and look in. The back car is a passage car and you can walk through that car.I wish they would allow you to walk through the sleep or the engine. Along the side are various displays talking about Harvey House restaurants, train depots, conductor uniforms and other exhibits detailing the train experience of the late 19th and early 20th Century.



To be continued ....