Tabla de contenidos para Summer 2020 en KANSAS!

Music in Isolation The self-isolation of 2020 has presented problems for everyone, including William Cason, the senior high school student and clarinet player featured in our story about the Sunflower Music Festival. As a senior, Cason would have been spending much of his time traveling with his music ensemble and performing at various competitions around the state. But the emergency public health measures prevented that, and Cason spent the last weeks of his senior year completing his classes and recording his songs from home. He also had to rely on technology for his crucial college scholarship auditions. “I had to do it through video calls, and that is weird because the sound quality is not the same as a live performance,” Cason notes. Nonetheless, his talent must have carried through.…

In 1986, Duane McCoy decided to honor his grandmother Mabel Hoerner by recreating her applesauce recipe. It was a chunky-style applesauce that Hoerner had perfected while growing up on a farm with an apple orchard just outside Manhattan in the late 1800s. Missing the applesauce of his childhood, McCoy experimented with fresh-sliced apples, fruit-juice concentrate and all-natural ingredients until he reproduced her recipe. McCoy began marketing Big Slice Kettle Cooked Apples, developing more flavors, which currently include the original as well as apricot, berries and chia, caramel, blueberry pomegranate, cherry vanilla and cinnamon French toast. Today, Duane and his wife, Regina McCoy, release these products under the banner of Grandma Hoerner’s Foods. The brand includes a line of natural and organic foods such as pie fillings, organic 50%-reduced sugar preserves,…

Last year’s flooding was a nightmare for Kansas anglers, making many boat ramps and favorite fishing holes inaccessible for months. Yet that same high water created plenty of shelter and favorable survival odds for last year’s spring fingerlings (both naturally spawned and state-stocked). It also meant that adult fish got an extra year of growth because of low angling pressure and plenty of nourishment amid the vegetation-rich flooded areas. So, after a year of bad fishing, we now have a boom in the fish population and the potential for dream-come-true angling at most Kansas waters over the next several seasons. Here is the year’s outlook for catching some of the state’s favored species, along with suggestions on some of the best places in 2020 to wet your line. Bass Largemouth…

For Rosslyn Schultz—the executive director of the Lucas-based Grassroots Art Center for the past 28 years—a working vacation might include a trip to Tobe Zweygardt’s metal sculptures near St. Francis, the Paul Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings in Belleville, or M.T. Liggett’s roadside sculpture poles near Mullinville. Often, she will combine these trips with side excursions to Kansas festivals, museums, historical sites, and areas of natural beauty such as the Gypsum Hills. “I like to add an extra day to explore onto any family-related trip or work trip,” Schultz says. These side trips are often off the beaten path, an approach she encourages others to take. “Plan to roam or be led astray when touring Kansas,” she says. “Do not have an itinerary, but let the locals tell you where…

Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week. Apply Pony Express Stables. In one of the West’s most fascinating stories, young men who courageously answered this advertisement rode horses across the Kansas prairie and rolling hills, traveling through summer heat, spring thunderstorms and winter’s blowing snow to carry mail from Missouri to California and back. This year, the Pony Express, which operated between April 1860 and October 1861, celebrates its brief but fabled history on its 160th anniversary. The first westbound Pony Express mailbag filled with letters, telegrams and newspapers left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860, and arrived ten days later, on April 14, in Sacramento, California. As the Kansas State Historical Society notes,…

Annika Wooton grew up in a family of artists in Richmond, Virginia, and fell in love with art as soon as she held a marker. To this day, she recalls her first art project—a Sunday school lesson at age 4. “I got a new box of Crayola markers, and my teacher taught me how to draw Noah’s Ark using the fat side of the marker and the skinny side to do different details.” Wooton continued drawing through her early years. By her senior year of high school, she was creating speed paintings as part of a joint performance with her school’s jazz band. Art was a highlight of her student years, but it was also something much more important. Wooton thinks back to her “darkest moments, especially in high school…

Renaissance Festival May 2–3 | Scott City Huzzah! Join the Scott City community as they celebrate the start of summer at the Scott City Renaissance Festival. Visitors have the opportunity to dress up in their favorite medieval outfit and enjoy food and drinks all day. Other activities include fun games and homemade crafts from local vendors. The festival begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday and ends at 7 p.m. at the Scott County Fairgrounds. Fairgrounds reopen at 10 a.m. on Sunday and the festival ends at 3 p.m. Visit the Scott City Chamber of Commerce for ticket prices and more details at chamber.scottcityks.org/june-jaunt/renaissance-festival. Sunflower Balloon Fest May 8–10 | Anthony The Anthony Chamber of Commerce presents the 23rd annual Sunflower Balloon Festival. The event will be held from May 8-10…

Most publications take months of planning before you see their glossy covers on store shelves. For a seasonal magazine like KANSAS! we begin working on an issue one year in advance. When we sat down to plan our anniversary year, there was no knowing that our summer issue—meant to celebrate Kansas festivals—would fall in the middle of global pandemic, and that many of the events we covered would end up postponed or canceled. In reflection, our upended plans are of little concern. Our greatest concerns are the challenges our readers and our communities are facing. For now, we hope you’ll find comfort in reading stories of Kansas’ treasured destinations, while escaping to our state’s beautiful landscapes through photography. Brighter days await us, and we hope to help you to look…

A great way to see the state is to take part in a road race. You get outdoors, you move, you support good causes with your registration fee—wins all around. And after you’ve burned off all those calories, it is time to refuel in one of the best ways possible: a slice of local pie. Here is a listing of upcoming summer races paired with two nearby pie bakeries. RACE 1 2020 Sunflower State Games Cross Country 5K, Topeka, July 18 Calling all serious runners! This race is the largest amateur race in Kansas and is held on the grounds of Iliff Commons, a course of rolling hills, prairie and woodlands. For maximum enjoyment of the course, competitors are required to leave their phones and digital music-players behind. The Refuel:…

JUNE Territorial Days June 6 | Lecompton Spend the first Saturday of June helping Lecompton celebrate its heritage with historical reenactments, museum tours and pioneer skills demonstrations. The festival also offers family events with food, arts and crafts, carnival rides and music. travelks.com/event/territorial-days No Idle Hands June–Ongoing | Wichita Get away from the heat this summer and visit the Wichita Art Museum’s exhibition “No Idle Hands: Treasures from the Americana Collection at the Wichita Art Museum.” The exhibit features art and artifacts that reflect daily life in America’s early history. wichitaartmuseum.org/exhibitions/current Flags 4 Freedom June 27–July 11 | Merriam Take a break from the festivities this summer to view the annual placement of more than 1,500 United States flags throughout the town of Merriam in honor of those who have…

For a good portion of the Kansas State Fair’s 107-year-plus history, the Sasnak Farm near Inman has sent its best sheep and dairy cows to the annual event. The tradition started in 1937 with Irvin Knackstedt and his milking shorthorns. Along with Irvin came his daughter, Helen, who showed dairy through 4-H and then, when she and Vernon Thiessen married, broke with tradition and began showing sheep. In the 1950s, one of their prize-winning rams won the Thiessens championships, not only at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson but at competitions in Fort Worth, San Antonio and Denver. “Agricultural fairs have been a big part of our country since the beginning.”–Robin Jennison The family’s winning tradition continued with their son, Merle Thiessen, who now has almost 59 years of perfect…

What do we know about the other moons in our solar system? On June 26, astronomer and educator Josh Cochran guides visitors through a study of the night sky and the visible moons of the solar system using the research-grade telescope at the Pittsburg State University-Greenbush Astrophysical Observatory in Girard. Smaller telescopes, binoculars, and iPads loaded with astronomy apps also will be available for extended viewing. “If skies are clear of clouds that night, we will be able to see the four major moons of Jupiter. The human eye can’t see the details of these moons, but you can detect movement. And over the course of several minutes, the moons will have changed position. And then, looking at Jupiter itself, you should be able to see quite a lot of…

When it comes to Kansas barbeque, Eric Hamm is a caretaker of history: He is the sole keeper of Carper’s BBQ sauce recipe, developed 100 years ago in Topeka by his great-great-grandfather William Carper. The family sauce didn’t start as a commercial enterprise; Eric’s great-great-grandfather simply loved to barbeque. “He dug a hole in his backyard, put a grate over it, and he would barbeque—with the sauce—and just give it to the neighbors,” Hamm explains. It was Hamm’s grandfather, Harry Nathaniel Carper Jr., and his wife, Marjie Hayes Carper, who took the sauce and their smoking skills to open Carper’s Bar-B-Q restaurant in 1942 in North Topeka. Harry also worked as a fireman in Topeka, so Marjie did the bulk of the cooking and preparation. Their restaurant served sliced pork…

Annika Wooton had dreamed of this moment since participating in her first pageant at 14 in the Outstanding Teen program. She had dreamed about it for the six winless years she competed in the Miss Kansas pageant. And then it happened. On June 8, 2019, at 25 years of age, in her last year of eligibility, Wooton won the crown in the 78th Miss Kansas competition. “It was an out-of-body experience,” Wooton recalls. “I was standing there trying to brace myself for either outcome. When I heard my name, I almost sank to the ground. It was so surreal to finally be in that moment.” For Wooton, winning the crown was a journey of profound resilience. “If I had won the first year, I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much,…