Tabla de contenidos para Issue No. 3 2023 en KANSAS!

WHERE IN KANSAS? When the Greenwood Cemetery was opening on the outskirts of Leavenworth in 1863, the Leavenworth Bulletin praised its setting of forested grounds and raised hill as “one of the most beautiful ever seen.” At the very least, the paper noted, the peaceful, rural cemetery was far superior to the town’s main cemetery, which “looks dismal and deserted and we do not wonder that our citizens have been afraid to die when they have been so unpleasantly impressed with the sullen gloom and sterile surroundings that pervade the spot.” But some 130 years later, it was Greenwood that had fallen into ruin. Abandoned and subject to vandalism, many of its tombstones were overgrown with brush, overturned, or destroyed. Believed to contain some 3,000 or even 4,000 burials, Greenwood…

As a born and raised Kansan residing in Gardner, Sarah Reeves has been a professional photographer for over 15 years. Her husband, Jake, has worked alongside her for most of those years as they shoot weddings and editorials together. Jake is a creative arts pastor, and Sarah leads alongside him while also staying at home with their two kids. She mainly photographs weddings, families, editorials and home interiors, but she enjoys all the opportunities that come before her. Her current passion is photographing families year after year. Watching her kids grow in front of her lens brings her joy. What was the moment you wanted to become a photographer? My parents had a Minolta film camera that I always loved using. I was so fascinated by the act of focusing…

An educator and culinary innovator for nearly a half-century, Dr. Mary Molt not only has amassed a collection of personal awards and distinctions but also is a driving force behind the award-winning dining halls at Kansas State University. Thanks largely to the guidance of Molt, The Princeton Review placed K-State’s campus food at number eight in the nation and number two among public schools in its 2022 edition of The Best 388 Colleges. That national ranking was five positions higher than K-State’s previous position in the 2021 report. Accolades for the dining services have also included a ranking of “Best in Kansas” in 2018 from Niche, a website that ranks schools, companies and neighborhoods. Niche’s 2019 food category rankings caught the attention of Foodservice Director magazine, and K-State’s dining services…

As I walked along the streets of the “Promised Land,” a community built in 1877 by formerly enslaved people, I could feel the Black homesteaders’ energy rising under my feet. A Black African American Kansan, I was awed by the challenges Nicodemus’ founders must have faced as they started their lives over in the rural Wild West. In 1996, the remaining five original structures—the schoolhouse, the A.M.E. Church, St. Francis Hotel, Township Hall and the historic First Baptist Church—plus residents’ homes were declared units of the Nicodemus National Historic Site by the National Park Service. Nicodemus, according to the NPS, is the “oldest and only remaining all-Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.” In the short two days I spent immersed in Nicodemus, I ran into tourists from across the…

Whether it’s our collective Midwest upbringing or just a Kansas thing—we are a humble bunch. Never quick to wave our banner. Or bring attention. It’s not for a lack of pride; we just don’t like to boast. What I’ve learned, though, is we have a lot to boast about. We need to raise our banners and wave them high. Erika Nelson, creator and curator of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things (located in Lucas), and I share the sentiments she explained to writer Beccy Tanner (pg. 48). We’re a state filled with dreamers and doers who bring those big dreams to life. In this issue, we pay homage to just a few of the record breakers in our state. From sports to…

Ozga captured this image using a Canon 6D camera body with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 art lens. Located in Shawnee, he originally fell in love with photography while working his first job as a teenager at One-Hour Photo. Initially, Ozga’s photography journey led him to film. He took a break when photography began moving digital but was able to find his way back to the art form about 15 years ago. Location: Chase County Social Media: @stephenozga “This photo was taken in Chase County near the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The building is the Lower Fox Creek School. This photo was taken in February 2021 while taking a country cruise with my wife … We could see the smoke from Strong City and wanted to check it out. I took…

This year marks 50 years since the release of Paper Moon, a Paramount Pictures road comedy-drama set in Depressionera Kansas. The film is about a young girl, Addie, and her criminal guardian, Moze, who cross the state conning vulnerable widows into buying Bibles, carrying out one fast-buck scheme after another, and keeping one step ahead of the law. You can plan your own road trip to filming locations in McCracken, LaCrosse, Liebenthal, Wilson, Gorham, Codell, Hays and White Cloud for insight into the movie. An extra bonus will be the views of endless skies, colorful sunsets, rolling hills, and vast fields of farmland where silver water towers and grain bins dot the skyline. It might be best to begin your road trip where the movie does—in Nickel Cemetery southwest of…

WHERE IN KANSAS? What is more simple--yet satisfying--than a grilled cheese sandwich? The traditional, no-frills sandwich has been popular in the States since the 1960s, with Americans now consuming over 2 billion grilled cheese sandwiches each year, according to marketing research company The NPD Group. Recently, a new generation of chefs has begun experimenting with the mixing and matching of breads, cheeses and seasonings on the standard grilled cheese sandwich, as well as adding in vegetables and herb-infused oils (and in some cases meats) between the layers of bread. When is a cheese sandwich no longer just a cheese sandwich? Perhaps only when the cheese is an afterthought—and that never happens at locations such as the Wheel Barrel in Topeka, which specializes in gourmet twists on the classic grilled cheese…

Nearly a dozen new, brightly painted 4-foot-tall cowboy boots now adorn the streets of Abilene in honor of one of the town’s early establishments, T.C. McInerney’s Drovers Boot Store. McInerney was one of the first to make a practical, American-style cowboy boot; his boot design was pictured in his store’s ad printed in the December 7, 1871, issue of the Abilene Weekly Chronicle newspaper. The cowboy boot public art installment is part of Abilene’s growing Cowboy Art Trail, which celebrates the early-day cattle town’s history. In addition to the colorful boots and the World’s Largest Belt Buckle, the trail includes: • Former World’s Largest Spur Standing on its end to form an arch at the entrance to Rittel’s Western Wear, the spur was confirmed by the Guinness World Records as…

Dream big, Kansans. Go big or go home, for we are a vast land of sunsets and sunrises, rich farmland and rolling prairie. Our land is where character is carved and chiseled across the open horizons. Others may scoff, no real mountains to gaze at, they say. But here in Kansas, we create our own landmarks. Big landmarks. Cawker City’s massive ball of twine is unashamedly a big deal. The ball of twine, built with a farmer’s make-do-save-it-if-you-can-use-it-later-for-something-else mentality, was featured in The Atlantic in 2014, when it then measured 41.42 feet in circumference and was nearly 11 feet tall. That was then. Now, Linda Clover, the belle of the ball in Cawker City, who shows visitors the ball and keeps track of its growing dimensions, says it currently measures…