Exciting Tallgrass Prairie News

When I went to Tallgrass for the first time last summer, the Ranger excitedly told us the Bison would be coming next year. The same information was given in September when I went. I pick up the paper this morning and they are here. Exciting News and a reason to return in the near future. To be sure there are Bison in Kansas already, farms near Salina and in Canton have Bison but it is a big deal to have them return to Tallgrass and roaming free in a National Park in Kansas

The story from the Capital Journal and some great pictures that were Top of the fold in the paper version of the Paper.

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-10-30/bison_return_to_prairie

Homestead National Monument of America

In the mist of Civil War in 1862 Congress passed the Homestead Act. On January 1,1863 anyone who signed up was given 160 acres of land to farm.If they stuck with it,they could keep the land.Why go to Nebraska if this is a blog about Kansas ? Fair question. Soon after the Homestead Act was passed, Timothy Smith came from Pennsylvania to Pott County Kansas, a few miles from Manhattan and began to farm. 5 Generations later, the writer of this blog sits at a lap top writing these words. The land near Manhattan is still in use.Someone in my the family has the paper signed by Lincoln granting the use of the land.

Last summer and this , I have seen the tales of Bleeding Kansas,the Drive Western,stood on a bluff and looked down at a river where Lewis and Clark explored.I have seen the Industry that has built the state,the politics that have moved the state and the nation. The moments were the hairs on my arm stand up have been many. The tour guide at the William Allen White explaining "6 Presidents have eaten at this table." Here we going to Beatrice,Nebraska the site of the Homestead land of Daniel Freeman, and I know his story is also my families Story. The story of the American Farmer braving locust,lack of knowledge in Farming. As many people who kept the land into the 6th and 7th generation many more failed.

Beatrice is maybe a half hour from Kansas, the Monument is 4 miles outside of town.It sits on 160 acres land Homesteaded by Daniel Freeman who made his claim on January 1,1863, one of the first if not the first to Homestead. We visited the Heritage Center.For cancellation fans, you can get 4 Stamps, one for the Monument, the Oregon Trail,California Trail and Pony Express.I had the best time talking with the Ranger about stamps, where to get them, how many we've had and hidden stamps.She found out afterwards if you go to the top of Long's Peak, you can get another stamp. She called and had them send her one.

The Film talks about the history of Homesteading including the fact it kicked Indians off their land. The Museum exhibits include Farm equipment, a wonderful display of Newspaper ads for Homesteading. It's very multi media with several videos,including a discussion about the last Homesteader in Alaska ,who got his land in 1980's.The centerpiece is a wind mill with rises above the upper level.

The grounds also include hiking trails,a restored cabin and a one room school house just off the property. In talking about the multi media , they are also on Facebook. I am now a Fan. The website talks about Fiddle festivals,high school ecology field trips and controlled burns.I had high expectations because of the link to my family history. I was thrilled to be there, thrilled it exists.Homesteading is an important story in Manifest destiny. The Bill signed by Lincoln opened by opportunity for many.60% of those who made Claims failed, 40% suceeded beyond the 5 years.

Council Grove in Pictures

Madonna of the trails and Council Oak

A dress made of newspapers used at a custume party in 1901, the Kaw Indian Mission.

The flag of the Vice President .Custer Elm

Custer Elm a 300 year tree that died in the 1970s. The ring.

Another Draft I never posted

Council Grove- A city that does it right

A town with population of 2,321 in 2000 boasts 24 Historic Sites. The first site we came across on 177 was the remains of an Elm tree where Gen. George A. Custer and his troops stopped to rest in 1867. From there the wonders continue, a stone erected in 1902 marks the site the Santa Fe Trail headed South west. A Restaurant in town Hays House has been in Operation since 1857 and boost the same General Custer and Jesse James as patrons. The restaurant is the oldest continuously operated this side of the Mississippi and is named after a relative of Daniel Boone who was the first white settler of the town in 1847.

East of the Neosho River with it's wonderful River Walk is an Oak tree where in 1825 where the Army negotiated with the Indians safe passage from the thousands of wagons heading west. Between the Oak tree remains and the River is a statue, The Madonna of the Trails, depicting a Woman and her children braving the trail and an 8 foot bronze statue of a Kanza Indian, The Guardian of the Grove.

The weather this summer has been wonderful and on the last September weekend, the Green has not given way to the brown grass, and this year I don't believe it ever will. A teenager sat fishing on the banks of the river.This is truly Kansas.

The Kaw Indian Mission is run by the State Historical Society, one of the student in the school was Charles Curtis, the flag of the Vice President hangs in the staircase. Curtis was Vice President in the late 1920's and was the first Vice President west of the Mississippi and the first Native American Vice President.A Book sold at the Mission tells the story of Curtis running away from the school and walking the 50 some miles to Topeka. The book, published in 1921 tells only of Senator Curtis.Curtis statue stands in the US Capitol. The Charles Curtis story takes us from a school for Indians to the White House, truly an American Story.

I keep going back to the William Allen White quote "What starts in Kansas,ends in History Books." Council Grove embraces it's history and a town so small had left it imprint on the country.

Pictures to follow

The National Parks- America's Best Idea

I hope anybody reading this blog has been watching all of or part of Ken Burn's latest masterpiece ,"The National Parks-America's Best Idea." With one episode to go,It has been a great series, with a few flaws. For as majestic as the pictures of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon have been, we have seen little if any of the Parks dedicated to preserving and explain our History,both the good and the bad. So the week of the series, I visited 2 National Parks, I have written twice about Tall Grass and in the middle of the week, I went to a National Historic Site,run by the Park Service that pass by sometimes twice a day on my way to work. This is probably the shortest distance I will travel in this blog, turning right on Adams , a few miles and a left on 17th street to the corner of 17th and Monroe. Maybe 5 minutes depending on how I hit the lights and traffic.

We find ourselves at a red bricked school house that opened with much fanfare in 2004.The old Monroe school, now the Brown v. Board of Education site. In the early 1950's the NAACP made headway in opening up the argument over Separate but equal facilities, this included bathrooms,restaurants,movie theatres and in some National Parks,camping area. In Topeka this meant 4 schools were opened for Blacks.Students had to walk miles out of their to attend schools,even when one was blocks away.

Brown is an accident of the alphabet,2o courts were bundled together for the Supreme Court to hear the case , the official title of the Case is "Oliver Brown,et. al v. ....." so Topeka gets the fame in the history books over people in South Carolina,Virginia and two other states. That being said the story of Oliver Brown is an amazing story,he attended school board meetings attempting to change the law, the school would hear none of it, even changing meeting time so he couldn't attend due to work.

The school contains two galleries ,a short film and a room to record your impressions. The galleries talk about the case, Jim Crow laws and the firestorm that proceeded the decision. For the most part I see school buses when I drive by, it does not contain the transcendent feelings you get at the Grand Canyon or Tall Grass.Yet it tells an important story.

Post script. Opps bad me, I left this as a draft. Ken Burns did briefly out that other National Parks,Mounments,Historic sites do exist,but he spent little time discussing it. That being said I watched most of the series.And it was fantastic, and caused me to do a little planning. We'll see if it comes off. Kansas has 5 spots under protection of the National Park service. Many more exist within a few hours drive, doable in day trips.

Fall on the Prairie