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On the outside edge of Topeka, Kansas, in a prairie setting is the Kansas Museum of History.
On the trail from the museum into the prairie sits an old school where many of today’s school children visit for a day of an old-fashioned experience including a boys and girls outhouses. Formerly known as the Stach School east of Delia, KS, built in 1877, the building was moved to the museum grounds and restored. There are also trails around the vast property as well as an old iron bridge crossing a small creek.
The Kansas Museum of History architecture is a modern delight as the tiered block building rises out of the field in white ’stoneness’ and graduated planes. Inside the museum are wonderfully crafted displays full of history trekking back into time.
“The sculpture of “The Great White Buffalo,” resides on the grounds of the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka [at the entrance of the Kansas Museum of History]. It was created by the artistic talents of Lumen Martin Winter…
Taking almost two years to complete, the sculpture is made of eight tons of white Ravaccione marble, named for the Italian locale where it formed. Lumen Winter’s design was chosen from more than 50 entries and it expresses his love of Kansas. Unfortunately, he never saw it completed. He died suddenly in the spring of 1982 and his son William, working from the designs of his father, saw the statue to its completion. The statue was dedicated October 18, 1983.
It portrays a buffalo and a Native American living in harmony. The man is not attempting to harm the buffalo, but rather merely signals his presence by touching the blunt end of his spear to the buffalo’s back. It is this spirit of universal harmony, peace, and love between man and nature that existed with our settlers and that Lumen Winter shares with us through his sculpture.“
“Locomotive No. 132 was designed to climb the steep hills of the Raton Pass on the Colorado-New Mexico border. It went into service in 1880. It was replaced by more powerful locomotives at the turn of the 20th century. In the 1950s, when it was officially retired, No. 132 appeared at the local celebrations and fairs and was featured in an episode of the popular television show Gunsmoke. In 1983, the Kansas State Historical Society received the train as a gift from the railroad.” ~Kansas Museum of History
Locomotive No. 132 and two coaches as a 1920s drover’s car and a 1910s division superintendent’s car can be seen at Kansas Museum of History. To read all about Locomotive No. 132, as-built specifications, and cools things: Cool Things, Locomotive, Kansas
The ‘life-like’ buffalo exhibit at the Kansas Museum of History complete with the sweeping sky and hilly landscape mural background, dried native grasses, cacti, sunflowers and prairie dirt, along with stuffed prairie dogs, partridge, a rattlesnake (not seen), and the buffalo. The exhibit is large, the size of a small room.
The photo of the painting of the woman with glasses was Frances Willard. She was a famous American Woman and not from Kansas. However, the overall painting was from a famous Kansas woman named Henrietta Briggs-Wall.
December 9, 2009.
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by Anna Surface
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