Fall at TallGrass - September 26,2009

When we were here last summer, we were told the grass doesn't really get tall until the Fall, so we planned a return. There are areas of the hiking trail where the Park Ranger assured us the Grass is over your head. That is a trip for another day. I wrote and posted a lot of pictures from the first trip, so I will be brief with this one. I was disappointed to find the park subject to budget costs, the house is now only open for Self Tours and they ask you to return the sheet of paper that is a guide after you are done. For the moment you don't get the experience of waiting on the front porch and having a park ranger in green uniform and smoky the bear hat open the door and greeting you. Also the bus tours have been cut to twice a day. The good news is Bison will be at the park by the end of the year. As if this wonder of nature needed any reason to return time and time again, we will go back.

The Prairie itself does look different, the blue stem grass shows a fall color that was absent the first time and adds to the subtle beauty of the place. The vast expanse of nothing ness is still mediative, you wish you can stay all day, and I guess if you want to leave the bus tour you can, as a group on our tour did.

I'll let the pictures of Fall on the Prairie speak for themselves.

Big Brutus, the pictures

Stay tuned for the next entry . If you all the way back to the first trip, the bus driver at Tall Grass National Park, said we really had to come back when the grass was tall in the fall.Well I'm going , the next entry will be in a few weeks Return to Tall Grass ......

Big Brutus

West Mineral Kansas lay just over the county line in Cherokee County, If you blink you might miss the town, I think I saw a bar. I can assure you drive down back roads you will not miss Big Brutus. The first view is Brutus towering over a line of trees. It reminded me a lot of a Godzilla Movie.

Brutus is the second largest electric shovel in the world.In hasn't been used in several years and a group of citizens saved it from being scrap iron in the 1980's.It you ever played in a sand box with a tonka toy shovel, I think maybe you could imagine Big Brutus.16 stories high and you can see from the picture just how small the people sitting up the stage for a concert that evening are . It was easily voted one of the 8 wonders of Kansas and would probably qualify for most any other state as well. As the map at the visitor center shows , people come from around the world to see it. The other two pictures are also from the visitor center and talk about Coal Mining. According to Pam Grout's book "Kansas Curiosities", this is the second time I've mentioned the book, so it must be good, Brooke Shields has actually visited the site. It's also available for weddings. I'll do a separate entry for pictures on the interior and the view from as high hope as we were allowed to go.

The Museum-Pittsburg

Crawford county has 2 museums, one is the Crawford County Historical Musuem In Pittsburg and the other is the Museum of Crawford County in Girard. We were not able to make the Girard one because it's only open on Sundays from 2 to 4. The one in Pittsburg is off highway 69 and down an access road. By this time I am starting to think all these county museums look the same. The same collections of old telephones,military uniforms, a school desk dating back at least 50 years, seen one you've seen them all..... Maybe not.

The volunteer working this Saturday was 91 years young and spent a lot of time we were there working on the henge of an old medical supply cabinet from a doctors office. Oh Yeah, they all seem to have a supply of old medical equipment.He came up to each of us and shared a story about what ever we were looking at, I was impressed by the old Frank Sinatra albums. He had a story about the collection of old sports trophies from a high school,Arcadia High than hasn't been around since the mid 60's. I like the idea the trophies are still around, they mean a lot to the people sitting in the stands and gyms , they are well preserved and I say "Go Tigers !!!!". The volunteer told us his son lives in Lawrence, but he doesn't get up that way much anymore. He also told us every town has a story, I agree, read this blog.

The story here ranges from dioramas of dinosaurs and Indians, to coal mines to Miss America from 1965. Pictures contains here in

Girard Town square

The first time see entering Girard is the giant American flag at the American Legion Post,Pam Grout in her book "Kansas Curiouties" says it's 30x60 and takes 20 men to hoist it up the 130 feet flag pole. The parking lot picture by the way is my attempt to be artsy,capturing the shadow.

On into town you encounter the Courthouse square,watched over by a grain silo.At one end is an impressive Vietnam Veterans memorial complete with a huey helicopter.Needing to make a pit stop we bypassed the Peppermint cafe and walked into the White Elephant,an antique store advertising "Old Stuff, and New stuff."

A note on the deer statue, town founder Charles Strong killed a deer on the site,one of the more unique statues I've ran across on a town square.

The Reds of Crawford County

In travels over the past years, I've seen memories of John Brown, the great abolishist, The Library of an American President,I drive past a memorial to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. At the State Historical society displays talk about early women in politics,and of course the Newspaper man William Allen White.In Crawford which runs up against the Missouri border and a half hour or so North of Oklahoma, we find Labor Protests and the home of the Socialist/Communist newspaper "Appeal to Reason".

A brief history of the Magazine is presented ,courtsey of Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_Reason_(newspaper)

The largest collection of "Appeal to Reason" can be found at the library of Pittsburg State University.

A Mural in the city library commerates a 1921 march by women against scab miners.Discussed in detail here. A truly remarkable story in the labor movement and frankly one that is not told as often as it should be.

http://amazonarmy.com/

Russell,Kansas and home on I-70

First the essentials on Russell,Ks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell,_Kansas

The amazing thing about Russell is it the boyhood home of 2 US Senators, from different states. Robert Dole (R-Kansas) and Arlen Spector (D-Pa). Age wise I don't think went to high school at the same time, but the sign on the highway proudly proclaims their hertiage in the town. The picture is just of main street on a lazy saturday summer evening.I found out later most of the people were at the county fair.One kid was on a bicycle riding just out of camera shot.

At Russell when turned home taking I-70, almost the way,maybe an hour on the highway we saw Wind farms,It was really a beautiful scene. They really add something to long ride home.

K-18

The guy at Cottonwood told us, "You've seen 24,I-70 is boring, take 18, it will go to Junction City cuts across. There is a wonderful church in Damar which is better than the one in Victoria."

We must have been 5 miles away and Kansas in it's eternal flatness showed us the way to the St. Joseph's Church in Damar,population 155.

Skyways tells a lot about what we found

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Damar/index.html

The water town is located in Paradise ,near where we turned to head into Russell,Kansas.It was built as a WPA Project in the 30's. Just an example when I take these little trips, It is a wonderful combination of what we know we are going to see and some very pleasant suprises.

Studley and the Cottonwood Ranch

a sad story in a bad economy, the Kansas State Historical Society has had to cut and trim like everyone else. Gone as of Labor Day 2009 is the Cottonwood Ranch in Studley Kansas. Well, it's not gone but the sheep have to go, the staff will take retirement after 20 some years and the tour will be self guided.

This is a 1890's ranch house built by an Englishman who raised sheep.The house has a nice collection of stained glass. One of the features the tour guide showed us is the work on the roofs was not always straight. One of the more entertaining stories is the roof on the front deck was painted blue, why blue ? Well apparently flies can be fooled into thinking the top of the porch is the sky and they have no place to land. Does it work ? The curator says he can sit outside of an evening and no flies bother him.

some talk about the ahh, semi closing. A large group trying to save the place made the argument that if you look at the tourist numbers per capta, it's a very popular attraction.Good news is it's still there, bad news is people will be missing out on a great guided tour. I really loved the discussion about the crooker roof and the shoody workmanship. People will still get the postcard view of Kansas Big Sky.