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."

I have a passion for ghost towns and cemeteries. 

I've traveled to many in my short time on Earth. Dunlap's black settlement and its cemetery may be my favorite.

I first went to Dunlap in 2001 0r 2002 for another newspaper to write a story of its history. Once there, I visited with a couple of residents, who knew the history of this former exoduster settlement.

Dunlap was started as a primarily white community in the 1870s. Pap Singleton found land cheap in the area, and started his colony only a few years later.

All that remains in the broken-down Baptist Church and the cemetery -- which is located about a half-mile down the road from the "white" cemetery. 

Instead the church is the remains of a pew and a piano. A sign does say posted, keep out. I assume it is on private property. 

The cemetery, however, is public. Someone keeps it well maintained, and a few of the graves still had fresh flowers from Memorial Day. 

The other ghost towns are also intriguing, and many include cemeteries. Diamond Creek road, which leads to the Santa Fe Trail stop of Diamond Springs, as a few dilapidated buildings and a cemetery. The road itself is a scenic drive, and those who know a little of its history will pass two ghost town sites before hitting Diamond Springs. A sign marks the former town of Hymer.

The Kaw of Council Grove

About a half decade ago, I met with the Kaw on the hill where the monument to an unnamed Indian sits.

Their idea was intriguing-- to turn their former home into a historic place -- a learning center and nature trail that could be a potential draw for the Council Grove area.

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.

Council Grove already is deep in Native American history. Each year, they have a festival honoring the last Kaw Indian chief. A trail and heritage park on an old reservation would just add to the town's story.

About a year later, I attended their ceremony, dedicating the Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park and the future site of the Kanza Heritage Trail.

I hadn't been back since until I went for a one-tank trip. I figured it would be more developed, but to my surprise, not much had changed.

There were no signs leading to the site. I found it easily, although I stopped at the gas station to see which road to take, and then had to look for the monument, which sticks out fairly well on the hill.

Pulling up to it, you might think you are going to wander on private property. And there isn't much parking. I recommend parking at the stone house then walking down the dirt road to the entrance.

I didn't walk far on the trail, although I'd like to go back and do so someday. Storm clouds darkened the sky. For some reason, I feared being alone, and being bit by a snake hiding under one of those flint rocks.

And no cars drove by this patch of Flint Hills. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Still, it is a good trip. I recommend taking a walk along the Kanza Heritage Trail, past the monument, ruins of huts and a reconstructed earth lodge.

Rocks, Rocks and more rocks

Rock City is just that, a bunch of rocks.

I'll admit I probably wouldn't make the trip without the one-tank trip series. And I definitely won't make it twice.

I'm just not that into rocks.

It costs $3 to see a bunch of rocks, if you're an adult. It's 50 cents for children.
They say the money goes to upkeep and the wages of an employee.

But I wouldn't pay $3 to do this. I felt kind of bad for the girl who was there at the same time I was. She was traveling to Los Angeles to make a living, and shelled out $3 to see the rocks she thought were shaped like little houses.

If you're into climbing rocks, or reading the names on the rocks, well, it might be up your alley. There are more than 200 spherical oddities across the area of two football fields. You can climb on them, picnic on them and even carve a profession of love to your significant other on them.

I don't want to bash rock city. It's just not for me.

Zoo story

June 1, 2008

Here, the rarest of animals do dwell
But you can find them, including an orangutan and exotic rhinos, with little effort.

Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
abickel@hutchnews.com

SALINA - Robbie likes women. Especially blondes. Sometimes he's shy around them. Other times, he shows off a bit.

And if the more than 160-pound orangutan could talk, he'd tell you it is human-watching season at the Rolling Hills Zoo.

Other animals, too, have come to expect that each year, with the end of the slow winter season at the zoo, humans will come in big quantities, just like the tulips that are blooming. They come to see Robbie, along with the more than 100 species that live on this 65-acre facility.

Drive a few miles west of Salina on Interstate 70. Turn off onto a county road that takes you through the small ghost town of Hedville. Here, among all places, a zoo is located amid a parcel of Kansas prairie.

It's here that Robbie lives, as well as some of the rarest animals of the world. Two white rhinos and an Indian rhino are the only ones in Kansas, and while both are endangered, only a few thousand Indian rhinos survive in the wild. Meanwhile, fewer than 5,000 snow leopards and just 500 to 1,500 Bactrian camels remain in their native range.

Robbie, too, is endangered, with less than 5,000 of his kind remaining in the wild, said Vickee Spicer, director of development and marketing at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure.

How it started

The zoo opened in 1999, thanks to a donation by Salina businessman Charlie Walker.

In the 1980s, Walker would invite children to his nearby ranch to see the animals, which included llamas, black bear cubs and a lioness. The zoo grew out of his collection.

"It was so popular, he realized there was a need in this area for a zoo," Spicer said.

He donated the land and some buildings for a park. The Rolling Hills Zoo officially opened in 1999.

Since then, the zoo has grown tremendously. Officials added a 64,000-square-foot museum a few years ago, which allows visitors to journey around the world within the museum, viewing exhibits portraying Africa, North America, the rainforest, the Far East and the Middle East.

The museum includes more than 500 full-mount taxidermy animals, as well as movable lifelike animals.

Lots to do, see

On this day, it's the animals that most are out to see. A lion prowls around its cage and black swans bask by the waters. A tiger curls up on a platform and kangaroos rest in tall grass.

Monkeys play on islands, and a pregnant llama will soon give birth.

But it was a black bear that fascinated 9-year-old Addelin. She crawled up through a pop-up display in the middle of the bear pen to get a closer look at the timid creature.

Her grandfather, Jim Smith of Hesston, had taken Addelin, her brother and sister to the zoo, along with Mary Lee Wiens, also of Hesston, and her two grandchildren. They wanted to do something with their grandchildren before the summer became too busy, Smith said.

"We've just gotten started," Smith said, although noting their next stop would be the zoo restaurant.

A gas tank away

An exotic trip to Africa might be a little too expensive this year, and high gasoline prices make a quick excursion to the see wildlife in Colorado, Wyoming or other nearby states more expensive.

So Spicer and others are hoping residents instead will turn to their own backyards. Put the Rolling Hills Zoo on a list of one-day excursions, she said. A day at the zoo seems to make everyone happy, even the animals. It's a first-rate place to commune with critters, she said.

"We're all crossing our fingers, hoping more people will take trips that are just a gas tank away," she said.

The first trip of 2008: Rolling Hills Zoo

Call it an exotic trip close to home.

That's the point of the one-tank trip - to find the unique of Kansas and explore. So, if you haven't been to Salina, then you should plan day out.

It helps the zoo was built a decade ago, making it one of the most up-to-date zoos around. The animal exhibits are visitor friendly. There's no big chunk of concrete barrier like at some zoos. Aside from the infrastructure, the animals are great, and there is plenty of variety.

My only disappointment: No penguins.

A few points of interest includes the building/ticket booth. It used to be the Tescott Depot. The Museum also has a conference center. The museum also has a cool theater.

If you go, be sure to stop at Salina and eat a "Cozy burger" at the Cozy Inn. The nearly 90-some-old burger joint is a Salina staple. If you walk in, you're sure to smell like the burgers on the grill. In the recent past, however, owners added an outside walk-up window.

These hamburgers are so thin, you can almost see through them. But boy, are they good. And, by the way, you can't order a Cozy without onions. I pick mine off.

A little personal history on the Cozy. My grandfather, Harold Cooley, supposedly ate the first Cozy off the grill when it opened in 1922. At least, that is what he always claimed. I'm fairly certain that even if it wasn't the first one served, he ate a Cozy the day it opened.

Sometimes things don't work out

I had heard about NASCAR's first winner being a native of Halstead. Coincidentally, there was a NASCAR-themed restaurant in this little Harvey County town that had some relics of the guy whose name is often forgotten by even the biggest NASCAR fan.

With all the racing fans we have in Kansas, I thought it would be a great story. However, sometimes stories just don't work out.

Halstead native Jim Roper heard about the first NASCAR race at a three-quarter mile dirt track in Charlotte, NC, by reading a note about it in a comic strip in his local newspaper.

Roper convinced a local care dealer to drive two of his Lincolns more than 1,000 miles to Charlotte, N.C. to complete in the June 19, 1949 race.

It would be the first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race ever -- now known as the Sprint Cup. Roper actually came in second to Glenn Dunnaway, but Dunnaway was disqualified after it was discovered that his rear springs were altered.

Roper raced one more NASCAR race. He was 16th overall in the 1949 standings.

According to a local guy, he died in 2000 and is buried in the local Halstead cemetery.

I thought Roper's successes would make an interesting story and one-tank trip, tied in with this popular bar and grill with the NASCAR theme.

The story, however, dissolved before my eyes when during the interview, the restaurant unexpectedly shut down and has yet to reopen.

Sometimes things just don't work out, but I have to admit it was the strangest experience I've encountered. While Halstead has plenty of interesting attributes, it doesn't fit the criteria of a one-tank trip.

There are a few stores open on Main Street. One woman moved to town about six months ago and opened a coffee shop and sundry store. She sells everything from candy and coffee to gifts, bulk foods and quilts. She also plans to have concerts, as well as open a pottery painting studio.

The Old Hardware Store on the southern edge of Main also is interesting -- especially if you are looking for hard-to-find items. Except for a few items, including electricity, the store represents an early 1900s hardware.

Other stops are the Kansas Health Museum, and Halstead has a great river walk and park, which was featured in the movie "Picnic."