Kansas Heritage Tourism
KANSAS 150 SPEAKERS BUREAU
Kansas 150
Is your property involved in the 2011 sesquicentennial year or warm up your audience this year? Click for a list of Kansas Humanities speakers and topics for presentations and discussions about Kansas!
Kansas Sampler Festival Registration
Kansas Sampler Festival registration deadline was January 31 but registrations are still being accepted, however soon it will be too late to be listed in the festival guide. Go to kansassamplerfestival.com.
Cozy Inn in Salina, KS Makes Travel Channel’s Top 101 List
Already a popular favorite for many Kansans across the state, the Cozy Inn in Salina is receiving some well-deserved national recognition. The historic diner recently ranked #69 on the Travel Channel’s 101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down. It was also named one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine by the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The Cozy Inn has been grilling onion-filled sliders, and only that, since 1922. After 87 years with their single location in Salina, a new Cozy Inn location is set to open this summer in Manhattan. More info is available at www.cozyburger.com.
Location of 2010 Symphony in the Flint Hills Announced
Texas/Kansas Rancher to Share Private Land with the Public 
(Jan. 13, 2010, Topeka, Ks) Edward Bass, a rancher with extensive interests in Texas and Kansas, will host the fifth anniversary of the Symphony in the Flint Hills on his picturesque tallgrass pasture in Chase County.
“The Flint Hills are blessed with some of the most magical, natural landscapes of our continent,” said Bass. “Most of the time it’s only a small band of cowboys that get to experience their full beauty though. The Symphony in the Flint Hills will allow several thousand people to become immersed in a remarkable nature setting enhanced by a celebration of musical arts. I am enormously proud to help make this happen.”
Bass’ “South Clements Pasture” is seven miles south of Cottonwood Falls and eight miles west of Bazaar. This is the first time Bass’s ranchlands have been open to the public.
“We appreciate Ed Bass opening his property to 7,000 enthusiasts of nature and the arts,” said Emily Hunter, executive director of the Symphony in the Flint Hills. “This land provides spectacular prairie vistas just as they would have appeared over 8,000 years ago. It is a truly magnificent location – perfect for our fifth anniversary of celebrating the Flint Hills.”
The fifth anniversary also marks the fifth year in a row that the governor of Kansas has served as the event’s honorary chair. In keeping with tradition, the Kansas City Symphony will also be back for a fifth year to perform the sunset concert and UMB returns for a third year as a major presenting sponsor. One element that changes each year, however, is the theme. This year, the symphony has selected “Ranching on the Tallgrass Prairie” as the theme.
“Good ranching is integral to the continuation of the tallgrass prairie, and we will emphasize this in a number of ways during the event – from the location of the event to the afternoon presentations featuring ranchers talking about present-day ranching life to Flint Hills cowboys riding herd,” said Hunter.
Historically cattle trails, then railroads and now highways have brought Texas cattle to the lush grasslands of the Kansas Flint Hills. Bass will join local ranchers in telling the story of how cattle grazing on the unique tallgrass prairies of the region has evolved over a period of 150 years to incorporate sustainable practices that emulate the natural migrations of the bison herds that once populated America’s heartland.
While event organizers are committed to telling the story of the Flint Hills through the event, they also focus on helping the local economy. More than 7,000 people will visit Chase County the day of the symphony – more than tripling the resident population. Of the $3 million that will have been spent over five years producing the concert series, 74 percent will have gone directly to Flint Hills’ rural enterprises and services.
The 2010 Symphony in the Flint Hills will be held on Sat., June 12, 2010. Tickets are $63 and will go on sale March 8. More info is available at www.symphonyintheflinthills.org. About the Symphony in the Flint Hills
The Symphony in the Flint Hills is an annual outdoor concert series that debuted in June 2006 and has sold out every year since. The symphony moves each year to a different site in the Flint Hills, providing an opportunity for the public to visit private ranchland. The event is organized by Symphony in the Flint Hills Inc., a grassroots non-profit organization with a mission to heighten awareness and appreciation of the Flint Hills. More info is available at www.symphonyintheflinthills.org.
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Historical Museums See More Traffic Despite Bad Economy
"People are dying to touch old stuff. If we arm them with white gloves and a little education they can have fun and learn at the same time."
----- Jena Mottola, executive director, Edmond Historical Society and Museum
Maybe people are looking for sturdy stuff in these unsteady times. Or perhaps they hope to learn from the artifacts of their ancestors, those who depended more on their own self-reliance than on the things they could buy. Some may wonder as they pay their energy bills just how humanity coped without airconditiong, computers, phones, gadgets and gas stations.
Evidence of this curiosity is seen in unexpected increases in traffic counts at historical museums. Edmond Oklahoma is a case in point.
The Edmond Sun reports the economic downturn has not slowed things down at the Edmond Historical Society and Museum. In fact, traffic has been even more heavy as people look for inexpensive entertainment as a way to save money:
“Families are looking for low-cost entertainment,” said Jena Mottola , Executive Direcor of the Emond Historical Society and Museum. The museum is offering white glove visits, where any age group can request a certain theme of artifacts to be brought out.
“People are dying to touch old stuff,” she said. “If we arm them with white gloves and a little education they can have fun and learn at the same time.”
A similar story comes from Dodge City, Kansas, the Queen of the Cowtowns. Janice Klein, director of the Mueller-Schmidt House Museum (1881) in Dodge City, notes that this summers visitors are not only larger in numbers than last year, but a different type of tourist.
"Our visitors are not the same ones that visit Dodge City's Boot Hill Museum," Janice says. "They are people that want to see an original Victorian Old West mansion and to 'feel' how people lived in the 1880s."
The Mueller-Schmidt House, the oldest home in Dodge City and on the National Register of Historic Places, has not gone to plastic covers or ropes. Visitors can stand where Bat Masterson danced. That is rare in any museum.
George Laughead, president of the Ford County Historical Society, which curates the museum for Ford County, points out that there is no charge (donations welcomed) so families can spend a few hours enjoying a real place where real people lived.
"This is not a replica," says George. "It is owned by the people of Ford County so we are open free to all of them."
Contributing Resources:
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More Kansas Heritage Tourism Resources:
See opportunities from the travel and tourism industry listed on our Opportunities page and our Rescource Links page.
And check out http://www.kansashistory.us for a bazillion history and tourism related links and http://www.travelks.com for some fantastic videos.