Spiral Pocus

When the early settlers came to Kansas, they found some of the most fertile farmland the country had to offer.  But the one thing they didn’t find was trees.  They needed fences so they used what they could find.  In this case it was limestone.  Everything in western Kansas in the early days was built [...]

Nothing cuter than a Kansas prairie dog.  This is not a wild prairie dog but one found in captivity at the Deanna Rose farmstead.    At prairie dog state park, you can see a live protected colony of the little critters. Prairie dogs are all over the the northern plains and they are interesting little rodents.
Prairie [...]

The Boulevard Drive-In Theater in Merriam, was the first drive-in in the world to install digital sound.  Built in 1950, the drive-in continues to operate today.
“With the digital sound, the field speakers sound so much better,” says Neal, who has seen attendance swell since the equipment upgrades. “The speakers don’t rattle, they don’t distort, they’re [...]

During a visit to Hays, we ran across this chainsaw carving on a tree stump in the city park.  This is the front view and when I took a look at the side view…the laughing started.

photo credit: Bob Topping
The 8 wonders of Kansas Cuisine features one of my home town favorites: Homer’s Drive Inn.  I’ve eaten more Homer’s Hamburgers than I have red blood cells.  In fact,  I ate there just yesterday while visiting my Mom.  The food is pretty basic – burgers, fries, shakes and hot beef sandwiches. All [...]

This was a frequent occurrence over the Cimarron river.  The train used to cross the river over a series of trestles which would often wash out with the changing course of the river.  To tackle this problems the railroad built this:

It was effective and in its day was considered an engineering marvel.  The bridge is [...]

Sculpture Hill is located near Augusta, KS.   The artist, Frank Jensen, has a great site, which gives you a nice visual tour.  Jensen was an English teacher for many years and some of his sculptures are inspired from classic literature such as Don Quixote.  I really like the Buffalo pictured above and it looks like [...]

Kansas is, of course, tornado country.  Although I think Oklahoma and the southeast seem to get more tornadic storms than we do here in the rectangle state.  This footage is spectacular and shows a relatively small tornado being chased and filmed by Jim Reed.  It gets a little tense when the storm seems to come [...]

The Davis memorial is located in Hiawatha, KS.  It was built by John Davis as a tribute to his wife, Sarah. John and Sarah Davis  married against the wishes of Sarah’s family in 1880.  The resentment was so extreme, the couple was estranged from Sarah’s family for the the 50 plus years of their marriage.  [...]

Well it’s official.  Santa will be relocating to Kansas.  According  to Top 5.com :
The increased electricity used by modern appliances is causing a shift in the Earth’s magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.
Hello…tourism!!   [...]

 
The geographical center of the United States is located outside of Lebanon, KS.  The tiny park is overseen by farm animals and is marked with a monument and a small chapel where you can quietly contemplate and center your consciousness in the center of the U.S.   … and people say we don’t have anything here [...]

The Tall Oak Sculpture that stands on the south lawn of the historic courthouse. The monument is the creation of Peter Wolf Toth who came to Troy to sculpt Kansas’ Indian monuments, the 29th in a series. This Kansas monument, sculpted of burr oak, is 27 feet high, weighs ten tons, and depicts the [...]