Overlooking Manhattan
May 16th, 2012 at 6:04 am
Here’s the view from one of the two terraces on the north side of the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan.
buildings, cities, Flint Hills
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Well done, Manhattan
May 15th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
WELL DONE, MANHATTAN
‘Take me back to the Cottonwood River,” Kelley Hunt sings. “Lead me on, lead me on to where the Flint Hills roll.”
Growing up Emporia, the Flint Hills likely provided Kelley Hunt with a feeling of being grounded, and the open skies surely fed her spirit.
It is Hunt’s song, “Heartland,” that the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan uses to seal the deal in its immersion theater. This theater takes you out into the Flint Hills where you feel the heat of fire, the cold of snow, the rush of a breeze.
When the film is over, stay seated, because that’s when Hunt’s song begins.
For those of us who live in or near the Flint Hills, the Discovery Center shows us our home. While scenes of the open range are familiar to us – the big sky with streaks of cirrus and contrails, spring wildflowers, cattle and cowboys – there is still a lot that we can learn about this region.
Dave and I went to the Discovery Center in late April, two weeks after it opened. This museum should be on every Kansan’s “must visit” list.
Last June, I toured the building while it was under construction. I saw just the bones of the place then, gray concrete and empty space, the building open to the elements. Now the center has come to life, and it’s a beautiful place. The people of Manhattan should be proud of what they have created.
Adjacent to the center is a small park with a water feature. Spouts of water make half-circle jumps, one after another, as if they’re playing leap frog.
Inside, each detail, each exhibit has thought and research behind it. Here, you can learn about everything from our oceanic history, to the Native Americans who lived here, to the PH levels of soil.
My favorite display in the museum was the grass roots area. You can walk through a dirt-like tunnel and see just how long the roots are on plants such as switch grass, Indian grass, and big bluestem.
grass roots
The Flint Hills region has only a thin layer of dirt before you get to stone, but the grass is determined, it wiggles its roots through the rocks, securing itself to the earth and looking for water; some of those roots are longer than I am tall.
When I sat down at a computer touch screen in the Discovery Center, I was pleased to see some acquaintances talking about their lives in the Flint Hills. Former Emporian Louis Copt was filmed out in the windy hills with his easel and paints. He spoke about the curved lines of the land and about painting prairie fires.
On the same touch screen, I listened to stories told by Annie Wilson of the Tallgrass Express String Band, Sue Smith of the Emma Chase Café in Cottonwood Falls, and Jim Hoy, local historian, professor and cowboy.
The Flint Hills Discovery Center hopes to get people out and into the hills, to appreciate the region so that they will become good stewards of this rare and vital ecosystem. And, these travelers will provide an economic boost to small towns and businesses in the area.
An interactive kiosk in the lobby allows visitors to obtain information about destinations. Those looking for food or lodging, events or historical sites can create an itinerary for a trip. The information may be printed out or sent to an email account.
The second floor of the center has activities for youngsters, and there are numerous interactive exhibits throughout the building, making it a very kid-friendly environment.
I watched a boy and a girl, both about 10, circle a display showing larger-than-life insects. “Oh, a dog days cicada,” the boy said gleefully. Science has an important role in the museum and children were taking it all in.
The Flint Hills region is a beautiful part of our lives. It provides a unique ecosystem, topography, history and culture. It’s a gift we have, this location, this land, these rolling green hills. The Discovery Center shows and tells our story.
*The Flint Hills Discovery Center is at 315 S. 3rd in Manhattan. Admission fee: adults, $9; military, students, seniors (65 and older), $7; children, $4 (2 and under, free). For more information, call 785-587-2726, or visit flinthillsdiscovery.org.
Copyright 2012 ~ Cheryl Unruh
*Lyrics to “Heartland,” were used with permission from the artist.
Two of Dave’s photographs are included in the exhibits. How cool is that?
Dave loves sweat bees and was pleased that one could be represented here.
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buildings, cities, columns, Flint Hills, history, Kansans, nature, places
Out in the hills
May 14th, 2012 at 8:38 am
The Flint Hills, Chase County
It’s hard to beat a view like this.
Happy Mother’s Day
May 13th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Our moms hold onto us, they keep us grounded, they keep us from flying off of the planet.
Thanks, Mom, for everything. For feeding me and clothing me and putting up with my surly teenage years. Thanks for teaching me how to drive and how to sew a dart and how to play Scrabble.
Thanks for the countless things you’ve done for me and my brother. Thanks for for being there, for the endless support and encouragement. Thank you for the unconditional love.
And thank you for keeping me from flying off of the planet.
I love you more than you’ll ever know,
Cheryl
10 miles
May 12th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Follow K-177 from Matfield Green 10 miles and you’ll be in Cassoday – where you’ll find the correct spelling of the town’s name.
Catching your breath
May 10th, 2012 at 8:30 am
A T-shirt for sale at the Flint Hills Discovery Center, quoting Emporia’s Jim Hoy.
On the air
May 9th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Hey, I was on Kansas Public Radio this morning – talking about my old alley in Pawnee Rock. You can listen here.
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Leading By Example
May 8th, 2012 at 8:20 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
This week we celebrate mothers. When you think of your own mother, what’s the first image that comes to mind? Each of us could tell a different story.
For me, I see my mom standing in front of a bookshelf, in a bookstore or maybe a library, several books already in the crook of her arm. Her head is tilted to the left as she reads titles on the vertical spines.
My mom has never been far away from a newspaper, a magazine, or a book.
Both Mom and Dad read to my brother, Leon, and me when we were young, but it was Mom who was the primary word-gatherer and word-peddler in our family.
She subscribed to newspapers from Hutchinson, Larned and Great Bend. Newsweek and other magazines came in the mail, and we made weekly trips to the Cummins Memorial Library in Larned.
We probably weren’t the typical family when we sat down at the dinner table. When Mom yelled “supper’s ready,” that was a signal for the rest of us to grab our reading materials and head for the kitchen.
Don’t worry, there was conversation as well. “Pass the potatoes, please.” And, “Could I have some butter?”
Our kitchen had a built-in table; three sides were open and the fourth side was attached to the wall. I sat on one end of the table reading a comic book or science-fiction. Leon, on the other end, likely had either a Mad magazine or a political science book. Dad leaned a folded newspaper against the wall to read. My mother had a magazine in her lap.
It’s not like we avoided conversations. When I came home from school, I chattered endlessly to Mom, telling her about my friends or a math test. And I spent a lot of time hanging out with my dad, too. On evenings and weekends, my brother and I played baseball, soccer, and football, and we also had the occasional fight in the front yard. So there was plenty of interaction. Suppertime was peaceful and quiet; it was reading time.
When Leon and I were in grade school, Mom bought a brand new set of encyclopedias. I’m not sure how these books were acquired – maybe they were purchased weekly from a grocery store, or maybe one lucky day the shadow of an encyclopedia salesman fell across our porch.
Anyway, Compton’s Encyclopedia was the centerpiece of our living room bookshelves, a world’s worth of knowledge in between 20 or so cream-colored covers. I’d pull down a volume and sit on the couch with my reading for the day. I learned about U.S. Presidents and studied the parts of a flower. In the section on the human body, plastic overlays showed the skeletal and circulatory systems and also the organs. I was fascinated.
Leon and I used these volumes for numerous school reports in social studies and science. Earwigs were kind of creepy, so I wrote a report about them.
Even though our family didn’t have a lot of money, Mom wanted to give us kids what we needed for a good education. Plus, she liked to read simply because she wanted to learn. She always felt deprived because she had wanted to go to college but felt that her parents didn’t have the money to send her.
She never gave up though. Mom found a way to get a degree, one class at a time. She began her college education in the mid ‘60s, when Barton County Community College opened, and she graduated from Wichita State University in 1982 with a degree in social work.
Leon and I were there for her graduation ceremony. At WSU that year they read the name of every single graduate, and her name was the very last one read. But that was good – because she received the longest applause – and a standing ovation.
While my brother and I could’ve gone in any direction, we both spend our days working with words. Leon was a journalist for more than 30 years, and a textbook copyeditor on the side. Now he edits and produces books in and about the Alaska native languages. And me, well, I just love putting words together; I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Mom never insisted that we read, but she made it seem so inviting. She led, and we read, by example.
Copyright 2012 ~ Cheryl Unruh
Water feature
May 7th, 2012 at 9:20 am
South of the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan is a small park which includes a water feature. I didn’t get a good shot of the water jumping, but it jumps in curves, one after another, like its playing leapfrog.
Oil boom in the Flint Hills
May 6th, 2012 at 8:30 am
A display at the Flint Hills Discovery Center tells about the oil rush in the El Dorado area which began in 1915.
