Pawnee County Progress 2022

DEDICATION 2022 Pawnee County Progress

Special to the Great Bend Tribune Sunday, January 30, 2022

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• GREAT BEND (KAN.) TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022

PHOTOS BY JANET FLESKE Great Bend Tribune

The Santa Fe Trail Center and museum host numerous events and features many historical exhibits.

Historic Pawnee County group keeping eye on upcoming 150-year anniversary

BY MIKE GILMORE mgilmore@GBTribune.com

LARNED — The Larned community turns 150 years old this year.

While activities, events and other observances are still in development, one group is looking into ways of adding the anniversary into the record of Pawnee County history.

“We have documents and records dating back to the early days of Pawnee County, all the way to the 100-year celebrations in the 1970s,” noted Santa Fe Trail Center & Museum Director Seth McFarland.

“It tapers off as we come closer and closer to present day.

“The fact is, that at some point, current events become history,” McFarland noted. “It’s important that we get to document the things that have gone on, are going on and will be going on, because all that gets added to the historical record.”

McFarland has gathered a group of historicallyminded individuals with a goal to present an overview of life events as they have occurred over the past 50 years, and their impact on rural life as it is today. “Of course, the ultimate goal would be to develop an exhibit that illustrates what we’ve experienced since the

worked in agriculture, while the agricultural GDP as a share of the total reduced to 0.7%.

Similarly, in 1930, 30% of farmers worked off the farm for an average of 100 days. In 1970, 54% had off-farm income and by 2002, that number rose to 93%.

In terms of productivity, however, mechanization, and later digitalization, have combined to transform daily operations that were largely labor-intensive on a large number of small, diversified farms, to large, specialized operations concentrated in rural areas where less than a fourth of the country’s population lives.

Annual farm income once existed below the national average; in 2002, however, it exceeded the national average by nearly $8,000.

hundred-year anniversary,” he said. “We would be looking at evolution at a micro level, at the things that are setting us up for what we can expect to experience in the years to come.”

Evolution examples Pawnee County was established during a time

of industrial transition, as the wagon trains of the Santa Fe Trail gave way to railroads that not only defined the mode of transportation, but also determined what communities would thrive and others would cease to exist. In 1867, for example, there were 33 post offices in the fledgling

territory surrounding Fort Larned. Only four remain as surviving communities, including Larned as the Pawnee County seat.

Agriculture has always been the primary industry for the area, but even that has evolved over time.

According to statistics compiled by USDA’s Economic Research Service,

in 1900 41% of the rural workforce was engaged in agriculture. By 1970, that number had dwindled to 4%. Additionally, the agricultural GDP as a share of the country’s total reduced from 7.7% in 1930, to 2.3% in 1970, At the dawn of the new millennium, l.9% of the employed labor force

THE CITY OF LARNED

“Be A Part of the Progress”

Pawnee County Area All Veterans Memorial Ft. Larned Ave. & Vernon Dr., Larned Dedicated to all service men and women who served their country. located in Doerr-Vernon Park.

Doerr-Vernon Park Splash Pad Ft. Larned Ave. & Vernon Dr., Larned A water tower and other water spray features.

The park includes a Fort Playground, General Store, Log Cabin and Covered Wagon.

Schnack-Lowery Park West 1st and Carroll Ave. Larned Municipal Swimming Pool Schnack Park Fountain Duck Pond and Playground John Schnack Express (Mini-train runs Independence Day, Halloween, and Special Events) Skateboard Park Memorial Rose Garden Ballfield

Larned Golf Course 681 E. 14th Street 620-285-4955 W maintained course features small & Well sloped Bentgrass greens with bluegrass & perennnial rye fairways. Includes ssloping, dog legged fairways & tree-lined water hazards. 9 hole, par 35 course, course rating is 35.9 and it has a slope rating of 106.

Community life As a community, Larned has always benefitted by Col. Henry Booth’s dedication to making and keeping it as the Pawnee County seat.

By 1960, Larned’s city population reached a peak of 5,001 citizens; after a dip in the 1970s, it peaked again at 4,811 in 1980.

See ANNIVERSARY, 3

GREAT BEND KAN. TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022 •

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ANNIVERSARY, from page 2

Look back shows Larned community focused on growth Larned’s population was recorded at 3,459 at the last census in 2020.

“In any community, there are going to be ebbs and flows, peaks and troughs,” McFarland said. “What we want to do is preserve what is meaningful, those human factors that existed that we want to keep and develop.

“In any part of civilization, what we have left, what we can interpret and understand, is what was written down,” McFarland noted. “I think that’s important. It’s how we mark our time here.”

A short look at the first 100 years Many factors contribute to the sustainability and longevity of a community.

Getting a good start in a good location was one.

In those early days, much of a town’s success relied on access to the railroad and in the 1870s, one railroad — the Kansas Pacific — spanned the state from east to west. At the same time, another railroad line — the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe — was pushing westward along a parallel route approximately 60 miles to the south. Among those developers viewing the Santa Fe’s progress was Booth, a retired army officer and former postmaster and sutler at Fort Larned.

The makings of a town As the Santa Fe ran its survey through Pawnee County in 1871, Booth and some Topeka men formed the Larned Town Company, about six miles east of the fort. In January 1872, directors of the company, included ex-Governor Samuel Crawford, president, and E. Wilder, secretary, met at Booth’s home at the Fort and agreed on the site of the town.

Booth was wellprepared in town promotion and leadership, having served as inspector of the military district in which Fort Larned lay. Of paramount importance, however, he had both political experience and contacts, plus considerable skill at organization. In April, 1872, Booth brought the first house to the new townsite downstream, floating it part of the way and then putting it on wheels. A few other houses were built that spring and

early summer as the first train rolled into Larned on July 20.

A potential threat to Larned as the county seat was averted as nearby Petersburg (now Kinsley) was established within the confines of the original county. The county lines were redrawn and Pawnee County officially recognized as one of nine area counties organized that year.

Further modifications were made to county lines that strengthened Larned’s stance as county seat and Larned was granted official status through election on Oct. 7, 1873. Booth was recognized as one of 21 families as original residents on Dec. 2, 1873.

Businesses, churches, a school and the Schnack brick plant followed and in November 1875 65 taxpayers petitioned the state petitioned the Legislature to organize Larned as a city of the third class. The first city officials were elected and articles of incorporation provided for a mayor-council form of government.

Building a future In the 1880s, Pawnee County like the rest of the state had caught “boom fever.” The population was nearing 2,000 and looking ahead to doubling as the century drew to a close. As the

Schnack plant continued to provide home-fired brick, residences and commercial structures appeared alongside the original wooden ones.

Added industries included the Ditson brothers, who manufactured windmills and then later street cars.

The Larned Creamery on the outskirts of town had a capacity of 2,500 pounds of butter per day. One newspaper, the Larned Optic, was joined by the Chronoscope with room for several more.

The new century The first telephones appeared in 1897, but it was several years before long-distance lines were strung from Larned and Great Bend. The first long-distance call in 1901 was reportedly placed by Dr. Alex A. Sharp from Larned to the M.K Wolf Brewery in Ellinwood to order a keg of beer.

It was delivered on the evening train that same day. Other happenings recorded in the same year included I.D. Row, who was offering a “full-grown meal” at his restaurant for 20 cents. Larned Opera House manager John Schnack booked the Andrews Opera Co. for a production of “Carmen.”

A.A. Doer had built more than 50 large steel cattle tanks. Fred Lowery opened a furniture store.

Member FDIC

City schools were open on Sept. 9, 1901; and VicePresident Teddy Roosevelt rolled through the area on the Santa Fe. The next decade saw more additions and changes. Larned State Hospital was opened in 1914, after winning a competition that included more than 20 western Kansas towns. The Pawnee County Extension

service was organized in 1916 under the Farm Bureau. By that year, the community of Larned had more automobiles per capita than any community in the country.

Through the remainder of the century, the community celebrated: the naming of Fort Larned as a National Historic Site in 1964;

50 years of the Federal Land Bank in 1971; the community’s 100th birthday in 1972 and the country’s bicentennial in 1976. Annual celebrations created during that time include Santa Fe Trail Days in May; the annual Christmas Parade in December and the Larned Chamber Antique Show in February.

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• GREAT BEND (KAN.) TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022

PHOTOS BY JANET FLESKE Great Bend Tribune

USD 495 looking to future as new year begins

BY MIKE GILMORE mgilmore@GBtribune.com

LARNED — Grappling with pandemic issues has been an unwelcome but necessary addition to the challenge of meeting a school district’s education goals. Traditionally, school administrators take a long look before changes in policy or procedures are made, so as not to negatively impact their students’ chances for success.

Administrators such as USD 495 Superintendent Bryce Wachs are constantly monitoring their districts to ensure results match their stated goals. Those goals not only apply to students still in school, but also to those graduates as they continue their education or enter directly into the job market.

“Student success is always our top goal,” Wachs said recently. “But, more important is student success after they leave Larned High School.

Our goal there is to make sure that all our students have success, whether it be in furthering their education, or in the job market. That is our school’s mission.”

Core STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculums have been a focus in U.S. high schools since the 1950s, long before the acronym was introduced in 2001 by administrators at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Changing STEM to STEAM incorporates the arts utilizing the same approach; the focus on problem solving, critical thinking and analytical skills expands traditional fine arts modalities into applied arts that pervade our daily lives as consumers as well as aficionados.

In addition to providing a balanced,

A traditional seven- or eight-period day means fewer minutes per class, but more time spent with students over the week.

More classes per day also means more opportunity for electives, such as vocal and instrumental music, fine and applied arts, or supplemental business, internship or leadership opportunities.

well-rounded secondary education, there is an increased need for vocational programming that provides career and technical education (CTE) skills for students desiring to enter the job market immediately following high school graduation. There is room for additional, out-of-thestandard-box approaches that target job training.

Currently, the Jobs for America’s Graduates chapter in Kansas (JAG-K) has 79 programs in 41 Kansas school districts, serving more than 4,100 students each year. JAG-K’s model programs include not only classroom instruction, but also adult mentoring, leadership development and provide guidance and counseling as well as access to jobs and post-secondary education placement services.

“We can’t just do what we’ve always done,” Wachs noted. “We must always be adjusting to the changing conditions,

Food services The district’s current food service program is receiving federal reimbursement due to policies relating to the pandemic. Once the program is discontinued, the district will be looking to effective and efficient operation, with the assistance of a food service management company. The board resolved to revisit discussions as the situation warrants going forward.

changing demands for our graduates.”

Revisiting the basics Last November, Larned High School Principal Dustin Wilson and Larned Middle School Principal Shane Sundahl gave a joint presentation of preliminary master schedules for the 202223 school year to the USD 495 Board of

Education. A committee of students, staff, parents and community members had been formed last year to implement a more traditional schedule to improve student success and maximize staff members and their expertise.

There are pros and cons to both traditional and block-scheduling frameworks and what

OWN YOUR TOMORROW.

works for one district may not work in another.

Advantages to block scheduling is the longer class periods offer more time for labs, projects or assignments; however, teachers see students fewer times a week. A student missing a day in a block scheduling format may have difficulty making up the missed coursework.

Outdoor facility master plan Wachs noted that ongoing strategic facility planning includes a study of athletic and recreational venues. With the assistance of HTK Architects, the district will be able to adequately look after its buildings, grounds and sports venues going forward.

Lastly, the superintendent noted that professional growth by teachers and staff members is a district goal.

“We must encourage all of our staff to continue their professional development,” he said.

“We can do that by helping with the costs of professional development to encourage each of our educators to continue to improve in their profession.”

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JANET FLESKE Great Bend Tribune

‘Lift Larned’ program among community projects on tap for 2022

BY MIKE GILMORE mgilmore@GBTribune.com

LARNED — Larned City Manager Brad Eilts looks at 2022 as a year of improvement, not only for ongoing city infrastructure, but in safety and other protocols that define the community.

“We already have some projects in place that will be ongoing, but there are other improvement areas worth taking a look at,” Eilts noted.

Lift Larned Larned’s property improvement program, “Lift Larned, was created in March, 2021 in response to a community survey that highlighted concern over unkempt and blighted property conditions in the community. The program offers an incentive for exterior repair to improve overall appearance, to address blight in the city’s aging housing stock and downtown buildings. The program can also be used to assist in code compliance, safety and ADA improvements as well as aesthetic concerns. Eilts pointed to the program as a means to add to the stated “Love Larned” mission as well as engage its residents in improving the quality of life in their community.

“Some people believe that city government should be limited to the core functions of what a city provides, like public safety and roads,”

PHOTOS BY MIKE GILMORE Great Bend Tribune

Eilts said. “The thing is, people are also looking for a quality of life, and so things like the swimming pool, the water fountain, the duck pond, Moffett Stadium are all right there in that concentrated area as a tangible example of city pride.

“The Lift Larned program exists as a way of extending that pride to residential and commercial areas,” he said. “Yes, our focus is on health, safety and welfare, so we’re looking at buildings in various stages of disrepair, and if they are unsafe structures, we have a policing action that can take care of that. But that is a taxpaying proposition. It’s better in the long run to offer a means of assistance that can catch small projects before they become big ones. (City building

inspector) Will Tice has been really good at helping us move forward with this kind of thing, to where we can look at a flow chart and know where we are in the process.”

Eilts said the City Council wanted to give residents an incentive to make improvements, so it transferred $50,000 out of the electrical reserve fund. It became a pool of

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At the Burdett location, Golden Valley operates a full service feed mill, a seed cleaner and a farm store offering a selection of hardware and farm supplies.

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money that could be used for that purpose. About $35,000 of the transfer had been utilized to the end of the year. The fund will continue until exhausted when the council will determine whether it should be renewed.

“It has been used to help people acquire property; clean up property or beautification on a building exterior,” Eilts said. “Some

have done concrete work, some have done windows or paint.

“We want to help people help themselves.”

The program is available through application at the city office, 417 Broadway in Larned.

city’s various parks and recreational areas, including Moffett Field Stadium.

A weather-permitting timetable listed several project completion dates from January at the earliest through November at the latest.

Water Line Project Over the summer, work stalled on of the city’s multi-year, multi-phase water distribution replacement project that was planned to have the first three phases completed by the end of the year.

Getting the project back on track despite pandemic-related supply-chain issues on materials was a challenge into 2022 and remains a priority on the project going forward.

The original project was kick-started in the spring of 2018 with the hiring of Schwab-Eaton as engineering consultant, splitting the 10 phases of work into four smaller project areas and securing a $600,000 matching-fund Community Development Block Grant to begin the first phases.

New fire station As fleet additions are made to the Larned Volunteer Fire Department, the increasing size of the vehicles has created a concern that the fire station building at 814 Main St. in Larned is no longer adequate to house them properly. Inquiries by city staff with council oversight has resulted in the creation of concept drawings with properly-sized roll-up doors; construction costs and a location for the building have yet to be determined.

Grant funding sources include Community Development Block Grants and the USDA, through its Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program.

Finishing ADA projects At the December 2021 council meeting, Tice presented a list of 16 remaining Americans with Disabilities Act projects requiring attention into the next year. Most of the projects dealt with improving pedestrian access in parking lots, bleacher seating or restrooms in the

Kiddie pool Concept drawings have been presented to the council regarding a toddler area for the Larned Municipal Swimming Pool. Power Play, an Oklahoma aquatic-play design-build firm,www presented the council with options in December and the governing body is negotiating with contractors for pricing and the city’s work share of installation.

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• GREAT BEND (KAN.) TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022

COURTESY PHOTOS

A Crown for Christmas: Relighting Larned’s water tower

BY MIKE GILMORE mgilmore@GBTribune.com

Events leading up to, and the relighting of the Christmas lights on Larned’s water tower going into the holiday season made it the event of the year for the community in 2021, with ramifications extending into the years to come.

The event was billed locally as Larned’s “Christmas Miracle.”

While the ceremony last Thanksgiving evening might not seem like a big deal to some, for the Kansas community of 3,800 in Pawnee County, it was dedication to a time-honored tradition — the restoration of a long-standing beacon to call its citizens home.

Near the end of the two-hour program —after the crown was lit and exploding fireworks lit up the scene — Larned Mayor William Nusser experienced an epiphany that summed up his involvement with the months-long revitalization project.

“My biggest takeaway, for certain, was the first time it was lit, then it made sense to me,” he said. “In looking at is as far as future planning for the City of Larned, is the importance of ‘a place of home.’

“What the water tower signifies to us is home.

So, as we look at our future marketing, branding, infrastructure repair, we have to want to maintain our home and that lets other people

A tradition begins It has proven difficult to find a resident who remembers exactly when the city’s 500,000 gallon water tower was first built, or when the lights adorning it made their first appearance. A brief reference was recorded within the June 1937 City Council minutes as to the decision to remove the city standpipe, which served the community’s 3,500-plus residents for many decades.

A subsequent reference was made to pouring the concrete for the new water tower pad a short time later, once the work on Larned’s Moffett Stadium was completed.

In that summer, after the Work Progress Administration group finished Moffett, the pad was WPA-poured and the tower built by an Iowa firm that took over construction after the WPA was done. know that this could be their home. That light at Christmas, for us, is the ‘beacon of home.’”

Nusser experienced a glimmer of that inspiration earlier in the fall, when he was speaking to a group of fourthgraders who had never witnessed the crown lit as their parents and grandparents had. “As I was trying to explain what it was that we were doing, the fourthgraders were asking me, ‘Why? Why is that important?’ They’d never seen the water tower as anything other than the place we store our water.

They hadn’t seen it lit, so

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the project didn’t seem to mean that much to them. That’s what got me really fired up about getting it done.”

The lights and their significance, meanwhile, were something that Rick Yeager has always known. Shortly after it was announced years ago that the lights would not be lit for Christmas due to safety concerns, Yeager started a grassroots effort to raise funding At our residence your loved one has the freedom to live with choice in their care, while you can be secure that they are being cared for by compassionate and professional staff.

and look into lighting sources. While some citizens were on board early on, there were roadblocks and obstacles that were difficult to overcome. “There were some people we didn’t have to convince, and there were others that we couldn’t convince,” he said. The fundraising really took off leading up to last July, when the mayor and the Larned City Council approved an agreement

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with Falk Architects of Topeka to install a new lighting system.

See LIGHTS, 8

SANTA FE TRAIL CENTER MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTER

(Photo courtesy Janet Fleske)

Dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the historic trade route known as the Santa Fe Trail and the settlement era of Pawnee County Events this year include: t (VO 4NPLF )FSJUBHF %BZT JO .BZ t #PPUT BOE #SFX JO +VOF t #JFOOJBM 3FOEF[WPVT 4ZNQPTJVN JO 4FQUFNCFS t 5JSFE *SPO 4IPX JO 0DUPCFS For more information, visit our Facebook page, or call 620-285-2054. We are located 2.5 miles west of Larned on Highway 156.

GREAT BEND (KAN.) TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022 •

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COURTESY PHOTO

Three-score-and-10 and counting: Larned’s State Theatre history rolls on

BY MIKE GILMORE mgilmore@GBTribune.com

LARNED — One look at the neon marquee while traveling downtown epitomizes a story of history in the making.

The State Theatre at 617 Broadway in Larned, like a fresh-made birthday cake with many candles, is an iconic mixture of the old and the new; while new film releases are shown on modern digital cinema equipment, the building interior holds traces of the past: in old photographs and movie posters in the lobby; in the spacious theatre with its curtain-trimmed screen and its dedication to more than 70 years of movie entertainment in the community.

On April 6, 2019, the decades melted away the closer one got to the State for its 70th birthday party. Automobiles from the WWII era lined the angle parking just as they had in 1949, on the day Don Burnett opened the venue at its current location. The marquee beckoned moviegoers with a showing of the 1948 film “Don’t Trust Your Husband” in large red capitals against the white background. Ticket prices were rolled back to 50 cents and inside, the birthday celebration included the obligatory cake.

TRIBUNE FILE PHOTOS

The State continues is status as a nonprofit, communityrun operation, with a volunteer advisory board and its cadre of volunteer groups that staff the lobby to take tickets and provide concessions.

It’s been that way since 2002, when a dedicated citizen group raised money through private and business donations to purchase the building and its contents. Accoutrements and equipment were assessd to determine what what needed repair, what needed kept, and what needed replaced. A digital projector, accommodating

3D movies, was added in 2017.

The pandemic brought restrictions, but not closure to the venue, which still strives to present first-run movies to entertain the Larned public.

Earnings from the weekend’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday “date-night” showings are put back into the theater, which also serves as a gathering place for special community presentations and holiday movie showings, as well as the occasional drive-in movie experience shown on a large portable screen at Howell Field north of the high school.

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• GREAT BEND (KAN.) TRIBUNE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022

COURTESY PHOTO

LIGHTS, from page 6

Ceremony result of several groups working together Although several adventuresome oldsters — including iconic college basketball coach and Larned High School graduate Lloyd Eugene “Gene” Keady — remember climbing the water tower in their youth, the lights didn’t figure in their recollections. That’s because the lights were not installed until December 1952, as uncovered by local Pawnee County researcher Tom Giessel. Larned electrical employees relate that the remaining original lowwattage bulbs, receptacles, fuses and wiring are indicative of those used during the late 1930s or early ‘40s, based on their availability at the time.

Yeager, a 1975 graduate of Larned High School, noted that it was possible many local folks took the water tower lights for granted. “A lot of the involvement was from folks like me who were generations down the road,” Yeager said. “We’d grown up with it. But it makes you wonder if the people who first put up those lights really knew what kind of impact they would be making on future generations. Did they know that they started a tradition that would endure long after they were gone?”

Lighting it up Falk’s design team was given the green light with the admonition that the original design would be preserved. The original design called for 168 lights, with 20 in the crown, 50 in the base and the remaining as connecting strings around the tower circumference to form the crown.

The long-lasting LED “Jelly Jar” lights are brighter than the original and are weather resistant. The design-build project was completed Nov. 11, well in time for the Thanksgiving lighting ceremony.

Meanwhile, plans were

proceeding on a full-scale ceremony. Larned High School industrial arts instructor Adam Hewson’s advanced woodworking class were in the final stages of constructing a ceremonial lighting switch large enough to befit the occasion. Keith Mull, father of Glenn and Elaine Mull whose memorial trust fund of the Golden Belt Community Foundation provided a significant portion of the funds for the lighting project cost, was recruited by Mayor Nusser to throw the switch.

“Keith’s house was right across the street from the

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water tower,” the mayor explained. “So when he lived there and family would come over for Christmas, he would tell the grandkids he controlled the lights on the water tower.”

After all the activities, the appointed time came and the countdown

began. The crowd, in unison, shouted out the final seconds; the switch was thrown, and the lights came on after a heartbeat or two. Then came the fireworks.

As a landmark, the newly-lighted crown could be seen for miles

on the horizon after dusk during the holiday season.

Just like a memory, rekindled by the sight of some long-forgotten item, that helped shape us into who we are.

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