Day trip will transport you to a people's past

Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.com

COUNCIL GROVE - Take a walk along the Kanza Heritage Trail, past a monument, ruins of huts and a reconstructed earth lodge.

It's here the Kaw Indians lived for more than 25 years, as well as a vice president.

The monument is visible from the paved county road - sitting high on a hill in the middle of a stretch of tallgrass prairie that waves with the stiff Kansas breeze.

Underneath lie the remains of an unknown Indian, a warrior who died before his tribe's forced migration to Oklahoma - a tribe that once existed on this parcel of land in the state that bears their name.

Yet the story lives on here amid the flint rock and blooming wildflowers.

It's the story of how a tribe reclaimed a parcel of land - 158 acres of it - in an effort to preserve and educate others about their trials, tribulations - their heritage.

Kaw history

At one time, the Kaw Nation stretched over 20 million acres across northern Kansas into Nebraska and Missouri.

In 1825, the Kaw signed a treaty to move to a reservation near present-day Topeka. In 1846, the Kaw signed another treaty and moved to the Council Grove area, selling their 2 million-acre reservation for a little more than 10 cents an acre.

They lived in the Council Grove area for 25 years before the government decided to move them again, said Linda Poston, with Council Grove's Kaw Mission State Historic Site.

On June 4, 1873, the Kaw's last forced migration began and was completed 17 days later. What was once a tribe plentiful in number had dwindled to 600 when it finally moved to its present-day reservation in Oklahoma.

Then, about 130 years later, in 2000, the Kaw returned to Kansas, back to their homeland, purchasing 158 acres they turned into Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park.

"It can be a rather spiritual experience when you go out there usually - hawks flying overhead and a few miles of trail and not many people," said Ken McClintock, a local historian who runs the Trail Days Bakery and Cafe.

Indian skeleton

Those who make the trip to the heritage park can see the remains of a Kaw Agency and ruins of three of the 138 stone huts the federal government built for the Kaw, although they never lived in the huts, he said.

Visitors also can travel a two-mile Kanza Heritage Trail around the former reservation.

The trail winds around the Flint Hills, past Little John Creek and eventually around the monument.

During the summer of 1924, a group of Boy Scouts discovered the skeleton of the Kaw warrior, McClintock said. The Smithsonian wanted the find, but landowner Frank Haucke told officials the Indian belonged at the site.

The Haucke family gave money for the construction of the monument, which was dedicated by the Kaw during a weeklong ceremony in 1925.

In 1929 or 1930, Vice President Charles Curtis, the most famous member of the Kaw tribe who lived on the reservation for a time with his grandparents, laid a wreath at the site, McClintock said.

Good day trip

About 90 minutes southwest of Topeka in Morris County, Council Grove makes a great day-trip destination.

Once a bustling rendezvous point on the Santa Fe Trail, Council Grove today attracts those of a different sort - tourists eager to relive the trail days' spirit.

"We have more Santa Fe Trail historic sites than any other town along it," McClintock boasts.
Visitors can see Council Oak, where, in 1825, a treaty was signed with the Osage Indians, ensuring safe travel for white settlers.

The Hays House, built in 1857, is the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi River.

Fading Santa Fe Trail ruts are still visible. Other sites include the trail's Neosho River crossing and the Post Oak, the unofficial post office for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail from 1825 to 1947.
Council Grove makes a good one-day trip, or even two, said Jeanine Bacon, who helps run Aldrich Apothecary, a full-service pharmacy with an early 1920s soda fountain.

"With the Kaw, with the trail, there's a lot of history here," she said. "It's a good trip for one tank of gas."

Exploring the hidden glory of the Gyp Hills

This was my favorite one-tank trip of 2007. But then again, I'm a little biased when it comes to Barber County. It has to be one of the most beautiful parts of Kansas.

For this story, I interviewed Elmer Angell. I had seen his seed sign during my travels along the scenic roadway. He wasn't home, so I looked his number up and called him when I got back to work.

Before making the call, I didn't know about his passion for the area, his work to establish the scenic roadway or anything else. I called him by chance, and he was a great source.

He grew up in this area, and his dedication to the Gyp Hills runs deep in his blood. He talked about how he worked hard to promote the area, as well as made calls to the Kansas Sampler Foundation in an effort to get the Gyp Hills chosen as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas.

It was a finalist. But sadly, especially for Elmer, it wasn't chosen.

If you go, stop by Buster's. Then take the road through Lake City, which is pretty much a ghost town. The school is dilapidated. Most of main street is, as well. An old-style phone booth still stands. I think it even still had a dial tone.

August 12, 2007

Exploring the hidden glory of the Gyp Hills

By Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.com

MEDICINE LODGE - As you travel the back roads of Barber County, the sky expands across red hills that rise and fall like waves across a sea of grass.

And these rugged Gyp Hills are far from the supposed flat Kansas landscape.

It's where cattle roam in the summer until herded by cowboys, where good roads mean taking a path through a fence and crossing a grate into an open cattle range. Green cedars dot the butte-like terrain, where the windswept grasses give way to prairie flowers.

"It's beautiful, it's unique, it's a spectacular exhibit of what our creator did," said 87-year-old Elmer Angell, who lives and farms deep in the hills. "There is nothing like them in the world, and they cannot be copied."

Back road tour The Gyp Hills are part of an official Kansas scenic byway, which runs along a 40-mile stretch of Highway 160 from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater. But most won't see the area's true beauty unless they wander onto a back road.

Angell, who operates a seed farm, has lived amid the hills all his life. He helped establish a 22-mile route by his home that winds through the open range, putting up green markers that designate it as the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive. It cuts through some of the county's most dramatic scenery. The route takes unpaved roads through the rolling hills and red mesas, past Flower Pot Mound and other landmarks. Sunflowers line roadways, and the surroundings are seemingly quiet, except for the sounds of the wind and oil wells pumping.

It's just one of several roads amid the Gyp Hills that folks can travel.

A cold one at Buster's

Buster's at Sun City has long been known for its beer in a fishbowl, served up for 60-plus years.

It's the only business in the town of 77 - which sits beside the boarded up bank and across the street from dilapidated storefronts along Barber County's River Road. that folks can travel.

Yet the business lives on, serving hamburgers, steaks and smoked meats six days a week to the sound of spurs that clang regularly on the bar's hardwood floor.

"I hope it never gets to a place that I take the sound of those spurs jingling on the floor for granted," said owner Katt Kerns, who admits she didn't realize real-life cowboys still existed until she purchased the business in February.

The big-city girl confesses she hadn't heard of Sun City or Buster's until she was browsing eBay. She figured she'd stop by on her way to Oklahoma, where she was looking at another business venture. She never made it farther south.

For the past several months, she's been running the more than 60-year-old business started by a guy named Buster.

Buster Hathaway opened Hathaway's Tavern in 1946, and it was eventually dubbed Buster's. He ran it until he died in 1996, and he is buried in the cemetery on the east edge of town.

Buster's was the first bar in the state to serve draft beer, Kerns said, noting that Buster preferred Coors. It was also the last business in the state to have outhouses as bathrooms. Another owner added bathroom facilities after Buster died.

The restaurant and bar draws folks from all over, not just Barber County, she said. For the past several months, she and her family have been restoring the building, which also is the oldest in Sun City.

"Buster's is an icon in itself," she said. "But it also is an icon that was kind of run into the ground, and my job is to get it back up from the ground."

Promoting the Gyp Hills

Kerns said she likes to travel up the dirt road south of town into the Gyp Hills and look down at Sun City in the valley. The white church steeple peeks out above trees that envelop the town.

"Kansas is supposed to be flat, but this is so awesome," she said of the hills that surround her home.

But the area isn't familiar to some tourists, who have heard of the state's Flint Hills but not necessarily the Gyp Hills, Angell said. Where else would folks see those distinctive red hills, Angell asks.

Rocks are stained red by iron oxide. Water once covered the area, he said. Erosion sculpted the hills people see today. He wants others to take in the red hills he calls home.

"Folks come from other parts of Kansas or other states and are so amazed at the unique setting and the beauty of the Gyp Hills," he said. "I'm sure it is the most scenic areas of the state of Kansas."

If you go:

What: Barber County Gyp Hills
Miles from Hutchinson: 87 (about 1.5 hours)
Miles from Dodge City: 105
Gyp Hills Scenic Drive: About 3 miles west of Medicine Lodge on Highway 160. Turn left at the sign that says Gyp Hills Scenic Drive. Head south on Gyp Hills Road, then west on Scenic Drive Road. Watch for the small green signs. The route brings you back to 160 on Lake City Road. The 22-mile trip also is one of 24 finalists in the 8 Wonders of Kansas promotion.
Sun City: Take Sun City Road north from Highway 160.
Buster's hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit: http://www.8wonders.org/

Marquette legend's career on display

Stan Engdahl died last year. He was a great tour guide when I went to Marquette for a one-tank trip in July 2007. His legacy, however, lives on through the Kansas Motorcycle Museum, and it still is very interesting if you enjoy racing sports and motorcycles. The museum added an addition this year to display more items. Stan's wife still is a curator.

What I enjoyed the most was the Indian motorcycle and seeing the old pictures on the wall. I also was amazed that Stan won a race at Sturgis. Most of his trophies are on display.

If you go, be sure to stop by the cafe, which is run by a British woman. I have a passion for soda fountains. City Sundries on Main Street probably doesn't rank up as one of the top fountains I've stopped at, but it's worth walking in the door.

About 10 miles to the west is Kanopolis Lake, and 10 miles to the east is Lindsborg.

July 22, 2007

Marquette legend's career on display

By Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.com

MARQUETTE - In a storefront on Main Street in this tiny town of 600, a white-haired man sits behind a desk, waiting.

He waits for the next person to open the door, the next person to tell the story of Stan the Man and the story of why the townspeople of Marquette turned a dilapidated old building into a motorcycle museum in honor of the local celebrity.

A fearless racer, they called him. A guy whose trophies number more than 600 and who five times won enough titles in a year to reign as national racing champion. He also has 16 state championships.

That's why they dubbed him Stan the Man.

"That's what they called me," the white-haired man named Stan Engdahl said of his motorcycle-racing career that spans a half-century.

A Kansas racing legend, Engdahl retired from racing in 1997. It didn't take long for townspeople in his McPherson County hometown to decided to renovate his former television repair shop and turn it into the Kansas Motorcycle Museum. It opened in 2003.

Evidence of Engdahl's career spans the building, everything from photos and trophies to his custom-built racing Harley. More than 100 donated motorcycles fill the museum. That includes a 1916 Harley Davidson, a 1958 Cushman Scooter, a 1922 Indian, a 1928 Cleveland and a 1994 Russian Ural. But Engdahl might be the biggest draw.

Engdahl and his wife, LaVona, are the curators, manning their posts seven days a week. Just pick a trophy, and he'll tell you the story. For instance, he won his first race in 1948 on a track near Salina. He became hooked. "My mother didn't like it," he admits. He won Sturgis' Jackpine Gypsies in 1968.

In 1962, he won the state championship with a broken leg. Engdahl broke two bones in his lower leg six weeks before the race. Organizers made him sign a release to participate. His doctor told him to be careful.

"I was," Engdahl said. "I never fell off."

Good day trip

Even Engdahl didn't know the effect his racing would eventually have on Marquette. While the neighboring town of Lindsborg capitalizes on its Swedish heritage, Marquette cashes in on motorcycle tourism, said Steve Piper, who owns the town grocery store and served as mayor 14 years.

Stephen McGee opened Steve's British Bike Museum - a hybrid museum and motorcycle shop - in 2005. In addition, a motorcycle rally in May brings 3,000 to 5,000 people to town and enough bikes to line both sides of Main Street.

"We built the museum for one reason, to help the town, to bring visitors to town," Piper said. "We've had thousands come through it."

It also makes a good day trip. Folks can go to downtown gift shops, have a soda at the sundries, visit the British bike museum and eat lunch at a local establishment.

"It's been a great boost for Marquette," Piper said. "It's helped some businesses in town. It's one of the best things we've done for Marquette, anyway."