Locally owned since 1867
Monday, June 21, 2021
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Legion teams compete
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Fence installed at governor’s mansion TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Workers were installing a permanent metal fence Friday around the Kansas governor’s mansion in Topeka as part of security upgrades at Cedar Crest. The upgrades come after a federal Department of Homeland Security assessment of the property earlier this year. Gov. Laura Kelly’s office said no specific threat prompted the decision to See SECURITY | Page A4
A dash of color The LaHarpe Days Committee hosted a 5K run and 3K walk Saturday, doing so with a colorful flair as participants were doused with powdered paint along the route. At right, a pack of walkers parade through a cloud of paint as they reach the finish line. Above, the festivities were capped with a “color splash” as the group tossed cups of powdered paint skyward. The LaHarpe Days Committee has a number of fundraisers planned to support the group’s 2022 festival, including a community cookout July 24. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS AND RICHARD LUKEN
Dividing the One to multiply 1st US cruise in 15 months sets sail
Trevor Hoag
By JONATHAN LEVIN Bloomberg News (TNS)
Just Prairie It’s through division that the One begins to multiply. That’s just what happened in August 1870, when a station was built near the highest point between Kansas City and the Gulf of Mexico along the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston railroad. This Ozark Ridge not only contained the area’s high point, but was seen as dividing the watershed of the Arkansas and Missouri Rivers; hence the new town was called Divide. Before that, the only white settlement in the area was a halfway house and tavern operated by a man named Wagner, along the mail/
The Walker House in Colony, at the corner of Broad and Maple, was constructed while the town was still known as Divide. At different points, it housed a hotel, newspaper and telephone office. Given the difficulty in obtaining water, early development at Divide was slow, with only a depot/post office, cattleyard and small store coming into existence. Moreover, according to Florence Fivecoat, most of
the townsfolk were men, with the few females resigned to careers like prostituting themselves at the hotel or bar. Indeed, “[Divide] became an ideal haunt for wanderers, wastrels, [homeless people] begging for rides on freight trains, and homeless men uprooted by the Civil War,” Fivecoat writes in “Colony Days, Vol. II.” Gunfights over cards games or ladies were a near-everyday occurrence, and infamous bandits like Billy the Kid perhaps frequented this “Little Chicago.” But all that was soon about to change, thanks to the arrival of a certain “colony.”
Guests lined up to board Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s Freedom of the Seas on Sunday, marking the first cruise from a U.S. port since the pandemic suspended operations 15 months ago. Passengers filed into PortMiami with suitcases in tow, a sight last seen in the world’s largest cruise port in March 2020. Freedom of the Seas can carry around 4,500 guests, and it’s expected to take about 650 on this first two-night loop, all of them Royal Caribbean employees who volunteered and were allowed to bring an 18-and-over guest. “I feel really safe with my mask, I’m vaccinated, everyone’s vaccinated, so I feel really good about it,” said Carolina Jimenez, a 25-year-old law student who was invited along as a plus-one. “It’s un-
fortunate how long it’s taken to come back, but I think that’s something no one could have controlled, and I’m just glad that now we’re here and getting back to it.” The trip is being dubbed a “simulated voyage,” a concept designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to essentially prove the ships are safe to sail with Covid-19 still circulating around the globe. For the past year and three months, the companies have been in a state of suspended animation. They have been essentially banned from the U.S., the world’s largest cruise market, and were saddled with the massive costs of maintaining their fleets in a zero-revenue environment. But the federal government’s caution around the industry came after dramatic outbreaks at sea last year that killed passengers and crew, See CRUISES | Page A2
BEFORE exploring said See COLONY | Page A4
The iconic railroad viaduct at Colony was constructed in 1927.
A Royal Caribbean cruise ship pictured in Miami on March 15, 2020. (PEDRO PORTAL/MIAMI HERALD/TNS)
stagecoach route between Lawrence and Humboldt. Vol. 123, No. 160
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