Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop
When I was in Kansas City last week, I cruised through a bit of Olathe and located the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop, inconveniently closed on Monday, so I didn’t get to tour the center. History doesn’t happen on Mondays – you can count on historical sites being closed.
But – nevertheless, there was this beautiful piece of art. When I saw it, I wondered if it had been done by Kwan Wu, who I had just learned about from visiting the SouthWind Gallery in Topeka. Wu has created a lot of public art in the metro area. I didn’t see a name on the work, but something I spotted later made me pretty sure it was Wu’s.
Stepping out of the past.
There appeared to be a bird’s nest in the window of the coach.
And this is it…
…when I saw this origami swan, I figured it was Kwan Wu’s work. Gary Blitsch at SouthWind Gallery had mentioned a mix of cultures in some of Wu’s work, so I smiled when I saw the swan.
More about this work.
Just a few miles from my house, and I haven’t seen this since the project was finished. Shame on me. There is a delightful sculpture and fountain in front of the Johnson County Court House in Olathe that appears to be by the same artist – Memorial to the Children Lost on the Trail.
Before my trip, I had planned on tracking down the Johnson County Courthouse, wrote down the street address to plug it into the GPS. But then when I was in Olathe, couldn’t find my notes and couldn’t find Internet access to re-search the address.
Wish you had given us a call, Cheryl. We would have been more than happy to provide some direction. You weren’t that far away from the courthouse. Kansas City Road intersects with Santa Fe just a couple of blocks east of the Courthouse.The children of the trail feature on the courthouse lawn is really quite nice and the mini blue sky is just on the north side across Santa Fe.
Was at the JoCo courthouse yesterday, and took a couple of shots of the sculpture there (Memorial to the Children Lost on the Trail). It is indeed by Kwan Wu. I’ve just posted it to my flickr photo stream.