The Kansas (Kaw) River stretches 171 miles from its origin in Junction City to its confluence with the Missouri River and is the primary source of drinking water for many communities in northeast Kansas. This recreational treasure was a well kept secret among a few knowing paddlers and anglers, but is fast becoming a valued recreational resource for thousands of visitors each year.
Life On The Kaw
* Indicates approximate location of sites.
Life on the Kaw
by Lynn Byczynski
Life along the Kaw River is influenced by a rich tapestry of humans, plants, animals, geology and hydrology. Although the best way to learn about the river is to spend time on it or along it, some background material will help you put your experience of the river into context of its history, its present, and its future.
"Watching the Kansas River" a poem by Elizabeth Schultz, Friends of the Kaw Member
Part 1: The Historic Kaw
Geologic history
Long before human history began, geological change a billion years ago created metamorphic and igneous rocks that underlie all of Kansas, but are not visible on the surface. On top of those rocks are layers of sediment put down by shallow seas that rose and fell over time.
About 300 million years ago, another oscillating sea covered the area, leaving behind layers of shale and limestone. Then, about a million years ago, glaciers moved down from the north. The Kaw River roughly parallels the southernmost tip of the most recent glacier, which covered most of North America about 600,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene Epoch of geologic history. In some places, the ice was 500 feet thick. The huge sheet of ice passed over hills and valleys, bringing with it great loads of rock, gravel, sand, and clay that were ground and scraped from the surface of the land they traversed. Boulders of red quartzite and granite, dragged from Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota can be found throughout eastern Kansas. Pictured on left is red granite visible only during low water just above access at St. George. An example is the reddish-colored boulder, known as Sioux quartzite, found at the south end of the bridge across the Kaw into downtown Lawrence. It wasn’t found there, but was transported from Topeka. An even more dramatic example can be found on Highway 99 in Waubaunsee County, about five miles north of Interstate 70 at exit 328. On the east side of the road is a field of boulders called a felsenmeer, the German for “sea of rocks.” Geologists believe the edge of the last glacier that covered northeast Kansas left these rocks here.
Geologists think that the muddy waters of the Kaw are the legacy of glaciation at the time the river was formed. Glacial till, the particles left behind by the glaciers, created the deep, fertile soils of this region, and left the stream beds full of soft sediments. Even if there were no agriculture or urban development in the Kaw River Valley, the water might still be cloudy because of its soft bottom and banks. Changes in weather and climate also can change the character of the river. Some early explorers described the river as clear, others as muddy. As it gets closer to the Missouri River, the Kaw narrows, so the water flows faster, and the channel floor is eroding more quickly. One result is the frequent appearance of fossils of extinct Ice Age animals that are removed from the channel floor. Canoeists regularly find chocolate-brown chunks of bones on sandbars here (pictured on right), and there’s at least one semi-professional collector who tours the river by boat after every high-water event and collects bones to sell to museums. Some of the fossils found in this area have been quite important—mastodons, hairy mammoths, a saber-toothed cat, giant beavers, among others. An exhibit in the basement of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas displays some of these big river fossils.
Natural History
A traveler speeding across Kansas on Interstate 70 might get the impression that the landscape is flat and treeless. But that’s just the effect of modern highway engineering. Go a mile off the interstate and you will get a good view of the dramatic changes in ecological provinces from the mouth of the Kaw in Kansas City (pictured below) to its start in Junction City (pictured on left.)
Along the eastern third of the Kaw, the plant life is not much different from everything east, all the way to the Atlantic seaboard. The woodlands here are part of the floristic province known as the Eastern Deciduous Forest. Douglas County’s Baldwin Woods typify this kind of forest. A rare treasure for Kansas, they were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1980, and are is described as “a unique remnant oak-hickory stand approaching climax condition, located at the western edge of the eastern deciduous forest.” The 200-acre tract is now owned by the University of Kansas and treated as a biological reserve. The land is not open to the public.
As you go farther west in the Kaw River Valley, forests become smaller and more patchy, interspersed with prairie. Near Topeka, the Eastern Deciduous Forest has all but disappeared, replaced by grasslands, scrubby areas that have been invaded by trees, and lowland forests along the rivers and streams. West of Topeka, the land opens into the magnificent vistas of the Flint Hills (pictured on left), the largest remaining area of tallgrass prairie in North America. Elsewhere, prairie was plowed for farming by the earliest white settlers, but the rocky limestone and flint of the Kansas tallgrass prairies made them unsuitable for farming.
The change in scenery along the Kaw River is a function of rainfall: near the mouth of the Kaw it averages 37 inches per year; at Junction City, 120 miles west, rainfall is only 30 inches a year.
Transition areas between major habitats, such as forest and prairie, are biologically rich because many different types of plants and animals find their niches there. Kansas, as a whole, has an amazing diversity of life: 3,500 species of plants, 25,000 of insects, and 700 kinds of other animals. Riparian areas along the Kaw provide critical habitat for many types of wildlife, from the tiniest fish—the Topeka shiner— to the biggest bird of prey—the bald eagle. Pictured on right are Pink Papershell Mussel shells and below is a catalpa bush blooming on the bank of the Kaw. All but red granite and bone picture are courtesy of Craig Thompson.
Human History
People first came to Kansas 12,000 years ago, during the last of the Ice Age, when the climate was cooler and less seasonal than today. Huge animals such as mammoth and mastodon roamed the area until a gradual warming trend brought an end to the Ice Age, and mass extinctions occurred around 10,000 years ago. From 11,000 to 7,000 B.C., people known as Paleoindians arrived here. They were nomadic hunter-gathers who used spears tipped with large chipped stone projectile points. Points of this kind have been found in all parts of Kansas, indicating that Paleoindians were no strangers to the area. The first forms of agriculture arrived in the Eastern woodlands of the state with the Hopewell culture, which flourished from around 200 B.C. to 500 A.D. The museum of the Wyandotte County Historical Society, in Wyandotte County Park, has a great collection of Hopewell artifacts that were found by an amateur archaeologist in back yards of houses not far from the museum. The Hopewell disappeared, for reasons not understood, around 700 A.D.
By around 1000 A.D., people living in this area relied on a dual economy of bison hunting and gardening of corn, squash and beans. In the Protohistoric Period, from A.D. 1500 to 1800, several groups of Indians lived in Kansas. The Kansa Indians, for whom the state of Kansas is named, lived along the Missouri River at least as far back as the 1730s. In the winter, they lived in large grass or brush lodges in villages along streams. The men were excellent fishermen, and the women gardened. During the summer, the people left the village to hunt buffalo on the plains. By 1800, the Kansa had started to migrate west, settling along the Kansas River as far west as Fort Riley. In 1847, when the U.S. government decided it wanted to open the territory to white settlement, the Kansa Indians were relocated to a reservation near Council Grove. In 1873, they were moved again, to a reservation in Oklahoma.
The first Europeans to visit eastern Kansas were the French, who came from the east and formed an alliance with the Kansa. The fur trade grew, attracting more and more white people to the area.
In June, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition sailed, rowed, and poled their boats up the Missouri River, stopping for three days to camp at Kaw Point, at the mouth of the Kaw River. (The area today is pictured on the left and is also a beautiful riverfront park with walking trails, and educational pavilion, and a boat ramp.) Merriwether Lewis, the commander and biologist of the expedition, spent much time ashore studying the animals and plants that were then unknown to the people of the United States. 
He collected specimens and noted physical characteristics of the land such as springs, soil fertility, and likely sites for trading posts and homesteads. Unfortunately, none of his notes for the spring and summer of 1804 have been found. All we have are the comments of William Clark,his second in command, who noted in his journal, “the country about the mouth of this river is very fine.” They didn’t see any Indians as they passed Kansas, because everyone was out hunting buffalo at the time. Picture on right are Lewis and Clark reenactors at Kaw Point in June of 2004.
Beginning in the 1820s, the U.S. government forced many eastern tribes to give up their land and relocate to what was known as “Indian Country.” Delaware Indians settled north of the Kaw River; Shawnees settled south of the river. Church groups established missionary programs for the newly formed reservations. The first to arrive were the Methodists, headed by the Reverend Thomas Johnson and his wife, Sarah Johnson, for whom Johnson County is named. The Johnsons built a two-story log school north of the Kansas River in what is now Turner, and the school boarded both Shawnee and Delaware children. Baptists and Society of Friends (Quakers) also established missions nearby. To expedite the transition to a farming culture, the ambitious Reverend Johnson persuaded his church to establish a large manual labor school open to Indians of all tribes. The church selected a site south of the Kansas River and erected three large brick buildings for classrooms, chapel, and dormitories. The school grew rapidly: At the height of activity, it had 16 buildings, 2,000 acres, and 200 Indian children ages 5 to 23. Some of the tribes represented at the school were the Kaw (Kansa), Munsee, Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Otoe, Osage, Cherokee, Peoria, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Wea, Gros Ventres, Omaha, and Wyandot. In addition to religion and academics, boys were taught farming, blacksmithing, and wagon-making; girls were taught spinning, weaving, cooking, and domestic chores.
Discovery of gold in California in 1849 and rapid population growth in California required a central railroad route to connect East and West. “Indian Country” became a desirable location for a railroad, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act organized the region for settlement. By 1854, the U.S. government realized that eastern Kansas was not a hostile desert but was, in fact, a place of fertile land and abundant water. The government made plans to force out the Indians to make way for white settlement. Over the next several years, the Indian missions, including the Shawnee Methodist Mission were closed. Pictured on left are musicans in period costumes at Kaw Point.
After the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806, Americans became aware of the fertile, free land in the place called Oregon. But the route taken by Lewis and Clark, up the Missouri River, seemed interminable, and only a few adventurers and traders made that trip. In 1819, Major Stephen H. Long was sent with a group of explorers to map the plains all the way to the Rocky Mountains. On his map, he labeled the Great Plains the “Great American Desert,” which discouraged travel west of the Missouri River for almost a decade. Many people, disappointed in their fortunes in the United States and dreaming of something better in the West, nevertheless were waiting for news that the country could be traversed by wagon. Wagons were essential for migration, as they carried possessions, sheltered families during the trip, and provided housing at their destination until houses could be built.
In 1832, a caravan made it across the Great Plains and the mountains, to western Wyoming. In 1841, 60 men, women, and children in 13 wagons made it to Oregon. In 1842, John C. Fremont made the trip and provided maps of the route. The following year, 1,000 people emigrated to Oregon along the trail, and the “Great Migration” was on. By 1870, when the transcontinental railroad made the trail obsolete, as many as 200,000 people are estimated to have traveled the Oregon Trail to a new life in Oregon and California.
The trail started in Kansas City, Missouri, passed through Lawrence, and crossed the Kansas River in Topeka. Pictured on left is a view one might have seen when traveling the Oregon Trail along the Kaw. The trail then went northwest to the Big Blue River in north-central Kansas and into Nebraska. The trail traversed Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon before ending at the Willamette Valley south of what is now Portland, Oregon. The journey, which most settlers made on foot to spare their oxen, was 2,000 miles long and took five to six months. For an overview of the Oregon Trail in Kansas visit the Oregon Trail Nature Park 30 miles northwest of Topeka between St. Mary's and Belvue just off US Highway 24.
Pre-Civil War Kaw
Contention over slavery had divided the country for more than 40 years when Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854. The law opened the two territories for settlement and proclaimed that the new residents would vote on whether slavery would be allowed in the territories. People on each side of the slavery issue rushed to get to Kansas and become residents. Pro-slavery Missourians—who already had 12,000 slaves living across the state line—got here first, of course, and began to stake claims along the eastern edge of Kansas and along the Kaw. Within a month of the territory’s opening, though, the New England Emigrant Aid Company sent Dr. Charles Robinson and Charles H. Branscomb with a small party of settlers to travel across the country and select a site for a town. They arrived on the first of August 1854, and a second party from Massachusetts arrived about a month later. The town site they chose was named Lawrence in honor of Amos A. Lawrence of Boston, a generous contributor to the New England Emigrant Aid Company. These settlers were known as Free Staters because they intended to prevent Kansas from entering the union as a slave state. The stage was set for the many battles that gave the state the nickname “Bleeding Kansas.”
Thousands of “Border Ruffians” from Missouri came into Kansas to vote in territorial elections, giving a majority to a proslavery faction, which took power and named Lecompton as territorial capital. For a few years, Lecompton thrived: Its population reached 4,000, it boasted five fine hotels, stage and ferry served it, and it became known as “Wall Street of the West” because the settlers and land speculators poured into the federal land office to stake their claims. You can visit that land office in Constitution Hall, now managed as a state historic site. In 1857, the proslavery Territorial Legislature meeting at Lecompton wrote the Lecompton Constitution, which called for Kansas to enter the union as a slave state. While this new Kansas constitution was being debated by Congress—an incendiary debate that started the nation down the path to Civil War—another constitution was drafted at Leavenworth and approved by the people of Kansas in 1858. That constitution also failed to win acceptance in Washington. Finally, a constitutional convention met in July 1859 in Wyandot, now part of Kansas City, Kansas, and was adopted by popular vote in October 1859. The Wyandot Constitution declared that Kansas would be a free state. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in April 1860 to accept the constitution and admit Kansas to the Union. The proslavery majority in the U.S. Senate, however, refused to act on the Kansas constitution. The Republican candidate for president, Abraham Lincoln, ran on a platform of immediate admission to the union for Kansas. When Lincoln won the election, Southern states seceded from the nation and removed their representatives from Congress. Both houses of Congress then passed the bill admitting Kansas to the nation, and President James Buchanan signed the bill into law on January 29, 1861. Kansas, after much turmoil, that day became the 34th state of a rapidly disintegrating nation.
The Kansas Capitol moved several times in its early years as a Territory:
In the summer of 1855, Governor Reeder declared Pawnee, near Fort Riley, to be the Territorial Capitol (on left.) The Legislature met in a hot warehouse building for four days, then rebelled and moved itself to the Shawnee Methodist Mission where facilities were more comfortable. The Mission remained the seat of government for several years.
In 1855 and 1856, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds for the construction of a Capitol building in Lecompton. Grand plans were drawn up, but funds ran out before the first floor was completed.
In 1861, after Kansas was admitted to the Union as a state, the capital was moved to Topeka. Construction of a Capitol building began in 1866 and the Legislature met there for the first time in 1870. In 1903, the building was completed. Photo on right of the State Capitol in the spring as well as the first Territorial Capitol above are courtesy of Craig Thompson.
Flooding
From time to time, great floods on the Kaw filled the river valley from bluff to bluff. In historic memory, there have been four great floods, three of them in the 20th century. Experts believe that 1844 was the worst flood in history on the Kaw, with floodwaters reportedly reaching what is now the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan, 40 feet above the normal stream level. Because there was no permanent settlement along the Kaw at that time, damage to structures was not extensive, but the flooding caused an unknown amount of hardship to Indians and wrought ecological damage. Picture on left is of the Blue River entering the Kaw just east of Manhattan in spring of 2007 - the Kaw was just below flood stage.
The second great flood occurred on May 31, 1903, when the river was two to five miles wide, flooding farmland along its entire length. The flood killed more than 20 people and left tens of thousands homeless. In parts of Topeka, floodwaters were 12 feet deep. People still continued to settle in the floodplain, setting the scene for the worst disaster in the history of Kansas: the 1951 flood.
Above-normal precipitation in May and June of 1951 saturated the ground and made conditions favorable for runoff when rainy weather returned in July. From July 9-13, as much as 16 inches of rain fell in some areas of eastern Kansas. The river rolled out of its banks and did extensive damage in Manhattan, Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City. The damage in Kansas and Missouri was unprecedented. At least 19 people were killed and 1,100 injured. From the headwaters of the Kansas River to the mouth of the Missouri River at St. Louis, about 2 million acres were flooded, 45,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 17 major bridges, some of them weighted with locomotives in an attempt to hold them, were washed away. By October of 1951, estimates of the total damage ranged as high as $2.5 billion (about $17 billion in 2000 dollars).
After the flood of 1951, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built levees and reservoirs on tributaries of the Kaw in hopes of containing the river in future floods. The complex system of levees, dams, and reservoirs was expensive to build and maintain. Many opponents argued against the flood control measures, but eventually the system was completed.
Most of the dams were focused on protecting property from 25- or 50-year floods, and were no match for the flood of 1993. A wet winter and spring that year were followed by record amounts of rainfall in July - as much as 24 inches for the month in some Kansas locations. Dams on the reservoirs were closed to contain as much of the rainfall as possible; Tuttle Creek on the Blue River north of Manhattan, for example, expanded to four times its usual size. But in July, the reservoirs reached their limits and the focus switched to protecting the dams from collapse. Water was released into the rivers, causing flooding along the Kaw, and worsening the catastrophic flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
For more details on the history of Kansas River flooding, visit the U.S. Geological Survey’s publication.
Part 2: The Working Kaw
Humans have always used the Kansas River for sustenance, from the first Indians who fished and traveled by canoe along the river, to the industries that developed on its banks and poured their waste back into its waters, to the urban populations who depend on the river for drinking water today. Like all rivers, the Kaw is a hardworking stream that is often under-appreciated as a source of wealth and economic vitality.
Trading along the river started as far back as the 1700s. Long before Kansas was opened up for white settlement, Europeans came here in search of fortunes. One of the best known traders along the Kaw was Moses Grinter, who arrived in the 1820s, set up a ferry across the Kansas River and opened a trading post to trade with the Delaware Indians. He married a Delaware named Annie, and they built a brick house, which today is Grinter House Museum on the north side of the Kaw in Kansas City, Kansas. It is a state historic site maintained by the Kansas State Historical Society. Picture of Grinter House Museum on left is courtesy of Craig Thompson.
The Kaw was one of the first dangers travelers faced on the Oregon Trail. Most travelers left Independence, Missouri, on the five-month journey in spring so they could get to the other side of the mountains before winter. But in spring, the Kaw was treacherous; in those days before dams upstream controlled the flow, the Kaw could become a roiling, angry river. Most crossed at Pappan’s Ferry in what is now downtown Topeka. The Pappan brothers were married to Josette and Julie Gonville, sisters whose mother was a Kaw Indian. The Pappans’ ferry boat in 1843 consisted of three dugout canoes supporting a single deck, and they charged $1 per wagon to cross. By 1849, the brothers had two boats in operation, each able to carry two wagons. They lowered the wagons to the river with ropes and had a team of oxen on the other side to pull them out.
In 1849, a Missouri newspaper reported that when the Kaw River was high, travelers would find an excellent ford at Uniontown. Thousands of emigrants bypassed Pappan’s Ferry at
Topeka and headed 15 miles west for this location, which became known as the Upper Kansas Crossing. The Kaw River crossing, eight days out of Independence, became the traditional place where wagon trains reorganized, tightened discipline, and elected leaders. At a given signal, men who wanted to lead the journey would march across the prairie, and the travelers would run behind the candidate of their choice. The man with the longest tail of people following him was thus elected. At least two ferries began operating near the ford in the Kaw at Uniontown, and each was said to carry 65 to 70 wagons per day. At $1 per wagon, the ferry operators made a handsome wage for the time.
Although the Kaw ran high in spring, it was shallow and braided with sandbars most of the year. As a result, navigation was often a questionable proposition. When Fort Riley was established in 1853, The military sent several shipments up the river when the water was high, and many other steamboat operators arrived in hopes of trading upriver. Service was regularly offered from Kansas City to Lawrence and sometimes Topeka and even Fort Riley. All told, 34 steamboats are known to have plied the Kansas from 1854 to 1866, with cargoes of freight and passengers. The Lightfoot of Quindaro, said to be the first boat built in Kansas Territory, was specially built for the Kaw River, but it spent more than a month in 1857 making the round trip from Kansas City to Lawrence, most of the time stuck on sandbars, and was then shifted to operating on the Missouri River. The last steamer to travel the Kaw was the Alexander Majors, which was chartered in 1866 to run between Kansas City and Lawrence until the railroad bridge at the mouth of the river, which had been destroyed by floods, could be rebuilt.
Navigation was doomed by an act of the Kansas Legislature in 1864 declaring the Kaw non-navigable, a political move designed to help the railroads build bridges and dams. The law was repealed in 1913, and the Kaw was again declared navigable, but by then there was little demand for river travel.
In 1876 the Bowersock family built a hydroelectric dam on the Kaw (pictured above) to provide power to the fledgling city of Lawrence, making it one of few cities in the West that had electricity in 1878 when Edison worked out the bugs in the incandescent light bulb and started the electric age. The Bowersock power plant (pictured on left) attracted a number of industries to Lawrence. Among those that thrived were four competing companies that set up manufacturing of barbed wire in 1878, shortly after it was invented. 
Lawrence quickly became the barbed wire capital of the West because transportation costs were much lower than from eastern manufacturing plants. The four competing companies eventually merged into one and were acquired by an east coast company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, that moved the business out of Lawrence in 1898.Other industries that located on the river to buy the power from Bowersock Dam included a paper mill, a flour mill, and a chemical manufacturer. Today, the Bowersock Dam still produces green power that is sold to the local utility company. 
It is the only dam on the main stem of the Kaw. The dam created a mill pond where catfish gathered, which resulted in a thriving commercial fishing business in Lawrence at the turn of the 20th century. The north side of the river was lined with little fishermen’s shacks and boat rental shops. Fishermen used conventional nets and trap lines from flat-bottomed boats, but they also engaged in a risky business called “noodling.” With a big hook tied to his wrist, a fisherman would dive to the bottom of the dam and feel around in the darkness for the big catfish that lived there. He physically hooked the fish, and dragged it to the surface. The entertainment center near the dam today called Abe and Jake's Landing (pictured above) is named in memory of Abe Burns and Jake Washington, two fishermen who had a cabin next to the barbed-wire building & pictured on left. Jake died trying to bring up a catfish that was too big for him to handle.
Back then, plenty of the fish were huge. Francis H. Snow, Kansas University’s chancellor at the turn of the 20th century and presumably a reliable witness, wrote in 1875 that he saw a blue catfish weighing 175 pounds and heard of a 250-pounder. Commercial fishing was eventually restricted, but many sport fishermen continue to catch big catfish in the Kaw.
Railroads have played an important role in the settlement of Kansas. The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave almost 4 million acres of land to the Kansas Pacific Railroad, which built its main line from Kansas City, Missouri, to Denver, much of it right beside the Kaw River. The Kansas Pacific (KP), which later merged with the Union Pacific, aggressively promoted the sale and settlement of land along the river so that the railroad would have a population to serve (Union Pacific train crosses the Delaware River just before it enters the Kaw on left.) The KP published a quarterly newsletter that circulated to 80,000 people touting the beauty and bounty of western Kansas. “Good soil for wheat, corn and fruit,” trumpeted an early ad for settlers to southwest Kansas. At the time, a quasi-scientific theory held that “rain follows the plow.” People observed that in eastern Kansas, early settlers had quickly changed the empty prairie into verdant farmland. The theory was that when the prairie sod was plowed, the exposed soil could absorb more water, which would in turn foster evaporation and the formation of clouds, producing more rain and a more hospitable climate. 
The idea attracted many supporters, including Ferdinand V. Hayden, director of the U.S. Geological and Geophysical Survey in the Territories. The railroads seized on the idea and promoted it throughout the East and in Europe. They offered free or reduced train fare to those who would settle in the West. Thousands did but, of course, the theory was nonsense, and when drought returned to the Plains in the 1870s, many settlers in both western and eastern Kansas gave up and moved back East. A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train runs along south side of Kaw, pictured above. Train pictures courtesy of Craig Thompson. Below paddlers explore a Kaw tributary under limestone rail road bridge.
Farming
The most important economic use of the land along the Kaw River is for farming: cropland comprises 60 percent of the floodplain and 28 percent of the 12-mile-wide Kaw Corridor, six miles on either side of the river. Today, the most important crops grown in the Kaw Valley are wheat, corn, soybeans, and milo. But in the past, vegetables and fruits were widely grown in the area. Historically, many Native American tribes, particularly women, grew vegetables in the fertile flood plain of the Kaw. By 1931, Kansas had been known as a fruit-producing state for more than sixty years. In 1871, Kansas apples won the highest award of the New Jersey Horticultural Society. In 1876, Kansas produce won a special medal at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and Kansas grapes won heavily at the World's Fair in Chicago.
Potatoes were the biggest crop, with 18,800 acres grown between Lecompton and De Soto in 1925. Farmers also grew sweet potatoes, beets, tomatoes, peas, beans, pumpkins, spinach, and sweet corn. Orchards and vineyards were abundant, too. Farmers’ menu of crops to take to grocery stores in Lawrence or to the City Market in Kansas City, Missouri, included apples, peaches, pears, and grapes. In 1900, a cannery opened in east Lawrence, giving Kaw Valley farmers a ready market for their vegetables. The Kaw Valley Cannery operated until 1925, when declining prices for canned goods shut it down. In 1930, Columbus Foods purchased and reopened the plant, and in 1950 Stokely-Van Camp bought it. The cannery continued producing canned vegetables into the 1980s, although by that time the produce was shipped in by rail.
Fruit and vegetable production in the Kaw Valley survived into the 1950s despite many challenges. Growing was never easy because of the unpredictable weather. Although eastern Kansas is an excellent place to grow horticultural crops, on average, extreme swings in the weather can ruin any given harvest. An abnormally bitter winter can kill trees, late spring freezes can ruin a budding fruit crop, and excessively hot, dry summers wreak havoc on vegetables. State apple harvest in 1919, for example, was 1.2 million bushels; two years later, orchards harvested only 100,000 bushels. The drought of 1934-1937 killed many orchards and vineyards in the valley, but farmers who survived replanted.
Even World War II and the extreme labor shortage it caused didn’t destroy the labor-intensive truck farming here. Local farm and business leaders worked with the Army to set up a prisoner-of-war camp just outside of Lawrence, and as many as 320 German POWs were moved here to work on farms, in businesses, and in construction. In July 1945, 175 prisoners of war harvested 1,000 acres of potatoes in this valley for 33 farmers. The flood of 1951 was the death knell for fruit and vegetable production, however. The Kaw and Wakarusa rivers raged out of their banks and covered virtually all of the floodplain. Orchards died, pea-shelling barns and equipment washed away, and soil was unworkable. As farmers recovered from the flood, many decided to try what was then a relatively new crop in the United States, soybeans. Bigger tractors introduced in the 1950s made larger-scale farming more practical, too, and farmers found they could make more money working with a tractor than doing the backbreaking physical work of vegetable farming.
In the past decade, though, vegetable farming has experienced a renaissance as small-scale farmers produce for local farmers’ markets, restaurants, and Community Supported Agriculture programs. Farmers’ markets in particular are thriving in communities along the Kansas River. For information on places and times of Kansas farmers’ markets, click here.
Wyandotte County is home to the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, which was chartered by Congress to honor America’s farmers. Inside the museum, extensive exhibits explain farming and rural life, with a large collection of machinery and implements of all vintages. Outside is a reconstructed 1900-era town, which includes a one-room school house, country store, veterinarian’s office, and other period buildings (pictured on left.) You can take a ride on a narrow-gauge railroad and tour an 1887 train depot. A brochure describes special events; the Agricultural Center has a number of celebrations which involve children, such as the Prairie Winds Kite Festival and Ice Cream Days. The center also offers educational programs for classes and groups that can be scheduled in advance.
Part 3: Inspirational Kaw
The meandering Kansas River and rolling landscapes that unfold beside it have been a source of inspiration for many creative artists. Painters, photographers, sculptors, poets, and writers add new dimensions to our understanding of the river. In addition, the arts are important for economic development in many towns along the Kaw. The entire area is rich with museums, galleries, public art, festivals, local books, and other outlets for Kaw residents’ creativity and enjoyment.
Starting at the mouth of the river, the city of Kansas City, Kansas, in a big Queen Anne style house, is the Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center (pictured on right.) The house was built in 1887 and sold in 1919 to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church next door. The church used it as an orphanage for 70 years, adding a dormitory in 1926. The museum celebrates the immigrants who moved to Kansas City, Kansas, in the early 1900s—first the Irish, Germans, and Swedes, then, later, the Croatians and Russians. There is a movement within the Kansas City, Kansas, community to revitalize the entire area from Fourth to Seventh Street between Minnesota and Central avenues. Although most houses in the area are modest by contemporary standards, the area is rich in cultural history and a wonderful example of the American melting pot where cultures from all over the world came together.
In Overland Park, Johnson County Community College has built an impressive art collection, with works displayed throughout the campus and in the new, 4,000-square foot Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. To learn the campus locations of the art works, click here. For gallery hours, click here.
Johnson County Community College is also home to the Carlsen Center for the Performing Arts, which brings world-class theater, dance and music productions. For the current schedule, click here.
The city of Lenexa celebrates its heritage as the “Spinach Capital of the World” with a festival each September. Among the festival’s attractions is a juried arts and fine crafts show. For this year’s festival, click here.
Lawrence (pictured above) bills itself as a city of the arts, with the art beginning literally on the banks of the Kaw. On the north side of the river, just east of the bridge into downtown, is a rock mural created by Stan Herd, an internationally known crop artist. He creates paintings visible from the air or from a distance by selectively planting, mowing, and plowing.
Downtown Lawrence is home to several art galleries, and there is an annual Art Walk that provides an opportunity to meet some of the Lawrence area's finest artists, visit artists' studios that are not usually open to the general public, and purchase locally produced art. Once a month, spring through fall, there is an Art Market at the Visitor Center in the historic depot north of the river. The Lawrence Arts Center is home to visual and performing arts, and always has exhibits open to the public. The Lawrence Art Guild sponsors several well-attended art sales each year, including Art in the Park and the Holiday Art Fair. Also the city of Lawrence has for more than 20 years sponsored a Downtown Lawrence Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, featuring works from artists nationwide. The sculptures are placed in various locations throughout the downtown area for about a year before a new group is selected and installed.
The University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence also offers a wealth of art and cultural activities with its outstanding permanent collection of American and international, ancient and contemporary art works and its acclaimed changing exhibitions. The Spencer Art Museum is open to the public. The KU School of Fine Arts, which includes music and drama as well as the visual arts, offers numerous free performances and exhibits throughout the year. The Lied Center of Kansas presents high-quality performances by established and emerging professional, national and international performing artists. Lawrence has also been praised for the strength of its contemporary music scene.
Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence is home to the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum Archives. The museum’s permanent exhibit traces Haskell’s history from its founding in 1884 as an agriculture training school for Indian children to its current status as a university with more than 1,000 students. Haskell’s vision is to become a national center for American Indian research, education, and cultural programs. The Haskell Archives collection consists of administrative records, history books, student rosters, theatre and music programs, photographs, films, and videotapes of Haskell events, and the student-run Indian Leader newspaper and yearbook. The Frank A. Rinehart collection consists of 809 glass negatives made by Rinehart and his assistant Adolph Muhr in 1898, 1899, and 1900 in Omaha, Nebraska, many at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition and Indian Congress held in Omaha in 1898. In addition to the archival information, Haskell also owns a valuable collection of museum artifacts from its 118-year history, which includes traditional clothing, jewelry, basketry, pottery, beadwork, and art by such well-known artists as Don Secondine, Alan Houser, Franklin Gritts, and Dick West. The Haskell-Baker Wetlands (pictured on left in photograph courtesy of Craig Thompson) are also located on Haskell University grounds.
In Lecompton, the “bleeding Kansas” era is well-explained through exhibits in two museums: Constitution Hall State Historic Site and the Territorial Capital Museum at Lane University. Lectures and reenactments are scheduled frequently, at above link.
Topeka has a lively arts scene, with 12 art galleries and 5 performing arts facilities. The city boasts its own Symphony Orchestra and Youth Orchestra. The Topeka Performing Arts Center hosts national music and theater performances. Washburn University has White Concert Hall and the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery. Art fairs and music festivals are an important component of civic life in the capital.
As for the Capitol building itself, the rotunda features a mural of John Brown, painted by renowned artist John Steuart Curry. West of downtown, the Kansas Museum of History offers superb history and art exhibits. The museum’s grounds include nature trails, a native prairie, and a restored 1800s school.
Although the riverfront in downtown Topeka (pictured on left) has long been an industrial area, efforts are underway to make better use of the Kaw waterfront. The Topeka-Shawnee County Riverfront Development Authority has hired an architectural firm to solicit ideas from community residents and present a proposal. The development may include hiking and biking trails, a visitors center, shops, and restaurants. For updates on the project click here.
Wamego, a small town on the north side of the Kansas River, has an extraordinary art history. On its main street, Lincoln Avenue, is the Columbian Theatre, which houses the only art works remaining from the Columbian Exposition and World’s Fair of 1893. The fair celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ visit to America and attracted more than 27 million visitors—nearly half of the U.S. population—in the six months it was open. J.C. Rogers, a banker from Wamego, was so taken with the fair that he returned to Chicago when the fair closed and purchased two complete buildings from the exposition, plus many statues, paintings, and decorative pieces from other buildings. Rogers incorporated many of his art treasures into a building on Lincoln Street. The second-story windows were from the Brazil Pavilion at the exposition (designed by a team of architects that included the young Frank Lloyd Wright), and the tin eagle on the roof today came from the Government Building. Four magnificent oil paintings by the German artist Earnest Theodor Behr were installed on the second floor. The true value of his acquisitions wasn’t known until 1990, when Wamego residents decided to restore the theater. Beneath the stage they found a crate with 14 additional paintings from the exposition.
The Columbian Theatre is open for tours and has an art gallery and gift shop on the first floor. The theater is still used for theatrical and musical performances. For current events, click here.
Manhattan, home to Kansas State University, offers many attractions for art lovers. The Strecker-Nelson Gallery is a privately owned gallery featuring regional artists. The Beach Museum of Art at K-State(pictured above), which features Kansas and regional art, is open to the public, and there are numerous performing arts events in the city and at the university. For a current schedule, click here.
The Artists
Many highly regarded painters, photographers, musicians, actors, and writers have made their homes in the Kaw Valley. It’s not possible to name them all, but here is a sampling of the inspiration many have found in the landscapes of the Kaw.
Aaron Douglas, Harlem renaissance artist, 1899-1979
Lisa Grossman, also see profile below.
More paintings by present and past artists.
Gordon Parks, photographer, writer, film director, and composer, 1912-2006
Langston Hughes, Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist, 1902-1967
Ken Lassman, author of Wild Douglas County, a bioregional approach to living on the prairie.
Denise Low, Poet Laureate of Kansas 2007-2009
Laura Moriarty, contemporary novelist
William Burroughs, novelist and essayist, 1914-1997
Elizabeth Schultz, writer and poet, "Watching the Kansas River"
Profile on Lisa Grossman (pictured below kayaking on the Kaw)
"Initially, I saw the Kansas River as most people do, an interesting blur as you drive over one of the bridges. Later, with maps, I sought out places where I could get close enough to the river to paint it. There are some beautiful spots but they are few and far between and the views fairly limited.
In 2002 I was flying back from Los Angeles, and as the plane passed over Lawrence I was thrilled to catch a glimpse of the Kaw stretching west into the sunset. This shining, sinuous line coming through the prairies made a deep impression on me. Soon after I had the opportunity to fly the length of the Kaw several times in a small plane to document it with photography and video. The elevation revealed the beauty of our living, dynamic, waterway to me with its huge sweeping bends and ever-shifting sandbars. It transforms itself every day, every season, and with every weather event. After joining the Friends of the Kaw for several wonderful floats over the years I decided to buy my own boat. Since 2005 I've been exploring the river by kayak and each experience has been magical. There's incredible freedom, silence, and the ability to see wildlife without terrifying it - all in my "backyard!" I've been fascinated with floating, paddling, and the mesmerizing cadence of ripples my boat, the wind, and the current makes. The Kansas River has inspired several shows' worth of work including prints, watercolors, and oils. In a few major print works I attempted to show all of the major bends of the Kaw as if one were flying the 171 miles from Kansas City to Junction City over the river. I've really only just begun to learn about and experience this river. In my future river work I can only hope to find the current and see where it takes me." "Island at Mud Creek"- Photo by Lisa Grossman, © 2007
"Five River Panels" - Relief-roll woodcut prints on panel by Lisa Grossman, 24"x12" each, © 2006
Part 4: The Recreational Kaw
The Kaw River provides numerous opportunities for recreation. Canoeing, kayaking, hiking, bicycling and bird watching are all popular on or along the river itself and there are many secondary recreational areas around the 18 reservoirs that control the flow of water into the Kaw’s tributaries.
On the River
The Kaw is one of three rivers in the state of Kansas that is considered a publicly navigable river. The other two legally navigable rivers are the Arkansas and the Missouri. Other rivers and streams in the state are deemed private property by Kansas law and can only be accessed with the permission of land owners. Although the Kaw has always been open to the public for recreation, for many years public access points were few and far between - the lack of public access was the biggest problem hampering development of recreational tourism on the Kaw. After unsuccessfully persuading the state of Kansas to design and construct boat ramps accessing the Kaw, Friends of the Kaw’s (FOK) Board of Directors decided it would try a different tack. FOK’s goal was to have public access every ten miles along the 171 miles of the Kaw. Prior to 2003 there were only three access ramps on the Kaw with several more on tributaries. Many times paddlers accessed the Kaw under bridges where they likely found treacherous footing and muddy banks. 
In 2002 with a goal in place, FOK was awarded a $3,000 grant from the Federation of Fly Fishermen to begin planning and construction of a boat ramp to the Kaw in St. George, KS (just 10 miles east of Manhattan and pictured on right.) Mike Calwell spearheaded this project and assisted the city of St. George in obtaining the necessary permits, getting materials and heavy equipment donated and recruiting volunteers to do the labor. In the spring of 2003 the ramp in St. George was dedicated. The city of St. George continued to develop the adjoining river front park, and today this is a very popular picnic and access spot. By directly involving the community in the planning and construction of the access ramp not only was the cost considerably less than a State-funded project, but the community took ownership and pride in their new city amenity.
The St. George ramp project became the model for other access ramps and riverfront parks on the Kaw. In 2004 the ramp at Kaw Point in Kansas City, Kansas, was constructed, and Friends of Kaw Point Park was formed under the umbrella of Friends of the Kaw. Friends of Kaw Point Park is now a separate 501C3 and continues to raise thousands of dollars to develop the Lewis and Clark Historic Park at Kaw Point. In 2005, the state of Kansas joined the effort and constructed an access ramp to the Kaw just northwest of the Lecompton Bridge. 
In 2006 two communities worked with FOK and ramps and riverfront parks were constructed in both Edwardsville (pictured above during construction) and De Soto, Kansas (pictured on right before dedication float launch), and another ramp was finished under the Highway 177 Bridge in Manhattan. Currently plans are underway to construct access ramps on the Kaw in Junction City and Wamego, with the promise of access ramps in Topeka, Ogden, and at the Maple Hill Bridge.
FOK has also worked with WaterOne of Johnson County and the City of Topeka Water Division to plan and build portage around the existing coffer dams near the respective water intakes on the Kaw. (Pictured on left is fisherman on Topeka coffer dam.)
Most of the land adjacent to the river is privately owned, and most landowners don’t want strangers on or crossing their property. Because there are no public swimming beaches on the Kaw, it is not designated for swimming or waterskiing. The Kaw is designated by Kansas Department of Health and Environment as Primary Class B, which allows for kayaking and canoeing as well as wading. The water of the Kaw is generally suitable for these activities except after a rain when contaminated runoff from agriculture and municipalities causes polluted conditions. A rule of thumb to avoid getting sick after recreating on the Kaw or in any recreational waters, is to wash or disinfect your hands, particularly before you eat a snack or meal.
The Kaw is known for its world-class catfishing waters, particularly for flathead catfish, although channel and blue catfish are commonly caught, too. Though the sport fishing in the river can be exciting, the state recommends against eating many fish taken from the Kaw between Lawrence and Eudora because of the high levels of PCBs found in the tissue of the fish. For more information on pollution in the Kaw, click here .
Safety should be paramount for anyone who wants to play on the Kaw. Although the river is generally slow-moving and shallow, one needs to be cautious of fast currents and migrating sandbars, particularly when water is being released from reservoirs or after a heavy rain. When boaters are on the river, they should keep an eye out for submerged objects and always steer clear of strainers (tree trunks or rocks that have caught debris). Never go to or in the river alone, and always wear a life jacket when boating or wading. For more information about safety and specific hazards, click here.
One of the best ways to enjoy the Kaw and to learn more about it is to participate in a FOK float trip. Private groups of 16 to 24 people can organize a float trip in canoes for specific 5- or 10-mile stretches of river. Float trips include a hot dog and marshmallow roast (pictured below) and a "Sandbar Seminar" to learn more about the Kaw. For scheduled trips and more information about floating the river, click here .
Near the River
In April of 2002, Friends of the Kaw hosted Robert Kennedy, Jr. (pictured on left) for a press conference and the launching of the Kansas Riverkeeper patrol boat at the then-undeveloped Kaw Point area, where the Kaw flows into the Missouri River, and where the Lewis and Clark expedition camped for three days in June 1804. Robert Kennedy, Jr. is the founder and current CEO of the Waterkeeper Alliance, and international water protection organization with over 160 members including Friends of the Kaw. When asked by the press what he thought of the area, Mr. Kennedy said, “I see a squandered resource.” This statement helped foster the transformation of Kaw Point from a junk yard to one of the most beautiful parks in the Midwest. The area today offers walking trails (pictured below), an educational pavilion, and a boat launch. For directions to Kaw Point, click here.
Johnson County
Mill Creek Streamway Park, the largest of Johnson County’s streamway parks, has 17 miles of paved trails for walking or bicycling. It extends from the Kansas River to Olathe. In 1986, voters approved the streamway approach to parks, in which land along streams is acquired for natural areas. Streamway parks serve a number of useful purposes. They provide quiet, shady places in picturesque areas where people can walk or ride bicycles. They offer uninterrupted stretches of habitat for animals that live in riparian (or water-bank) areas or along the edges of these areas, so that the animals can move about freely without having to risk their lives in traffic. Also, riparian areas serve as sponges that soak up extra rainfall and deter flooding. If they are paved over, flooding downstream worsens. By preserving the floodplain as parkland, flood damage is minimized. A low-impact streamway park such as this one, with nothing more than a bike path and occasional benches, lets water rise and fall at nature’s whim, with nothing harmed.
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At the northern border of Johnson County on the Mill Creek Streamway Park is a bridge that leads to Nelson Island. The island is named for Cleggie Nelson, who ran a speakeasy here during Prohibition, but then spent the rest of his life as a hermit. When Nelson took title to the island in 1920, it was 27 acres and was reached by a hanging bridge. Today, the powerful force of the river has eroded the sandy banks and diminished the island to half its former size. In the fall of 1998, the flooding Kaw took a big chunk of the island, slicing off a quarter mile of paved path. The island provides an excellent example of the woods that are typical of riparian areas all along the Kaw. Big cottonwood and sycamore trees (pictured on left), with a tangled undergrowth of shrubs and vines, line the sandy banks of the river and serve as perches for the bald eagles that winter here. A biological survey a few years ago found 75 species of plants. The trail cuts through the undergrowth, providing a shady place to walk and an opportunity to get close to the river. Unlike the peaceful trail in Shawnee Mission Park, south of here along Mill Creek, this area endures a constant din of urban activity. Cars and trucks roar by on Interstate 435 as it crosses the Kaw, the sand operation across the river adds its drone, and, to the south, garbage trucks and giant earth movers beep and rumble in the Johnson County landfill. Yet wildlife still finds a home here, a testament to the resilience of nature.
Along the banks of the river or in nearby wetlands, are bald eagles (especially in winter), hawks, great blue herons, American avocets and greater yellowlegs, as well as many kinds of migratory waterfowl and songbirds in spring and fall. Painted turtles perch on logs soaking up sun. Raccoons, coyotes, muskrats, northern water snakes, and beavers are frequent visitors or residents. On agricultural lands near the river, live deer, badgers, owls, meadowlarks, Great Plains toads, and rat snakes. The state fishing lakes and federal reservoirs attract an astounding diversity of animals, some that stay year-round, some that migrate here in winter, others that just pass through. Bobcats are widespread, though seldom seen, in many areas near the Kaw. For information about wildlife viewing sites, click here.
Lawrence, Lecompton, and Clinton Lake
In Lawrence, a path on top of the levee attracts hikers, joggers and cyclists. There are also some off-road trails for mountain bikers. The stretch of river from Lawrence to Lecompton (Rising Sun Access just northwest of Lecompton Bridge pictured on left)offers some of the best places in the state to see bald eagles in winter, when they are drawn to the open water below the Bowersock Dam. Bald eagles can be seen year-round around Clinton and Perry lakes. Kansas has become home to at least 14 breeding pairs that have successfully fledged more than 123 eaglets in the past decade. The first of those pairs built a nest on Clinton Lake in 1989. Despite the fact that the female disappeared during incubation, and the male raised the birds alone, two eaglets were fledged that year. One of them returned to Kansas in 1993 and nested at Hillsdale Lake in Miami County, and the other returned in 1994 and nested at Perry Lake. Every year, a pair of eagles has come back to this area and successfully raised young—usually three eaglets, which is more than the national average. One is likely to see eagles around the south end of Clinton Lake from early November to mid-July. The eagle lays eggs—about the size of a big chicken egg—between late January and March. The male and female sit on them for a little over a month, until they hatch. Then the adults care for the young for 70 to 80 days before the offspring learn to fly. By then, the eaglets have reached 95% of their adult size, and that 6-foot nest, which seemed huge when there were three chicken-sized eggs in it, will seem a little cramped with five birds that stand 3 feet tall from head to tail and that have wingspans of 7 feet. The young eagles will roost at the nest tree for about a month after fledging. The pair that nests on the Wakarusa arm of Clinton Lake usually leave the lake in summer, presumably to find cooler weather in the north or west. Some of the other nesting pairs in the state do stay year-round.
The comings and goings of the Clinton eagles are fairly well documented because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bands the birds and has even put radio transmitters on some of them. How do they manage to put a leg band on a bird as big and ferocious as a bald eagle? The preferred method is to do it when the birds are 6 weeks old, about 8 to 10 pounds. After the parents have flown off the nest, a boat pulls up to the tree, and a tree climber scales up to the nest. Each bird is put in a gunny sack and lowered to the biologists waiting below. Even at that age, the eaglets are a handful, but the biologists attach leg bands, measure and photograph the birds, and return them to the nest in about 30 minutes. Contrary to popular belief, the parents will not abandon the baby birds if they smell humans on them. Eagles, like most birds, don’t have much in the way of olfactory sense.
There’s great hiking around Perry Lake on a 30-mile National Recreation Trail that winds up and down the hills and valleys on the east side of the lake. It traverses many kinds of landscapes, including prairies, farm fields, upland woodlands, intermittent streams, and riparian areas. The Perry Lake trail was established by the Kansas Trails Council.
Another hiking trail is in Topeka behind the governor’s mansion, called Cedar Crest. Flat, paved parts of the trail run next to Interstate 70 and are pretty noisy, but there is some lovely woodland walking which hardly seems near the edge of the city. Park on the west side of the governor’s mansion to find the trailhead for the wooded area. The trail is interesting botanically because of its seamless transition from upland woodlands, with its complex of oaks and hickories, to the riparian area along the streams. Nearby, on the former Menninger Clinic grounds, the state is developing the 76-acre Kaw River State Park (pictured on right).
Tuttle Creek Reservoir and Manhattan
The catfish are legendary at the Rocky Ford area below Tuttle Creek dam. Rocky Ford was the site of a grist mill and later a hydroelectric plant on the Big Blue River, a tributary of the Kaw, as early as the 1870s. Newspaper accounts from 1870 report on people who caught up to 400 pounds of fish in one trip. Rocky Ford now is just below the Tuttle Creek dam, so the water level can rise suddenly when water is released upstream. A siren is supposed to sound before that happens, but visitors should be aware that any sudden increase in water level means they should head back to higher ground.
South of Manhattan lies the jewel of the Flint Hills, the Konza Prairie. To get there, cross the Kansas River and turn west onto McDowell Creek Road. The road runs between the Kaw River and the hills, and it feels almost as though you are in two different places at once. On the right is the broad, flat floodplain with its white frame farmhouses surrounded by lush fields of corn and wheat, a typical Eastern farm scene. On the left, are stone ranch houses, stone barns, and stone fences tucked into the hills, cattle grazing around them, the image of the West. Pictured on left are buffalos grazing on the Konza Prairie and below deer on the Konza Prairie.
Konza Prairie Research Natural Area is 8,600 acres of virgin tallgrass prairie, which means it has never been plowed. It was once part of the 10,000-acre Dewey Ranch, purchased in 1872 by C.P. Dewey, a Chicago land speculator. C.P. Dewey and his son, Chauncy, kept adding to their empire in this area, particularly after a savage blizzard in 1886 forced many cattle ranchers to sell their land cheap. By 1926, the Deweys owned 30 large parcels of Flint Hills land. But their cattle enterprises, like those of so many whose land they had bought, eventually failed,and the mortgage holder repossessed the Dewey Ranch in 1930. Two years later, George Davis purchased it, bringing his acreage in Kansas up to 70,000 and making him the largest landowner in the state. Davis also owned the Z Bar Ranch, which includes the 10,984-acre parcel near Strong City that is now the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. He owned an even larger parcel in southwest Kansas that media magnate Ted Turner purchased in 1999. The Nature Conservancy acquired the Konza in 1977 and turned it over to Kansas State University for management. For many years, the Konza was off limits to everyone but the scientists who conduct research here, but today public trails go through stream and prairie habitats. Fourteen miles of hiking trails, designed for walks of 3, 5 or 6 miles, are open daily to the public. A brochure at the trailhead introduces the grasses and other plants that make up the tallgrass prairie and gallery forests along the streams. Go quietly, and you may see wildlife in the first “edge” area of the trail, where a cultivated field meets the riparian area along the stream. Turkeys and deer are common visitors here. The first part of the hike has a steep hill that may be taxing, but it is well worth the effort. At the ridge, a nearly pristine landscape stretches as far as the eye can see.
Milford Lake, near Junction City, is another Corps of Engineers reservoir in the Kansas River basin. Milford is the largest lake in the state, covering 15,000 acres in its multipurpose
pool, more than twice that in its flood-control pool. Besides the usual lake attractions, Milford has a fish hatchery, a nature center, and a new hiking trail along the Republican River, a tributary of the Kaw.
Vision for the Kaw
Friends of the Kaw considers the Kansas River a 171-mile linear park for everyone: plants, animals, families and outdoor enthusiasts. FOK continues to partner with river communities to develop boat access, riverfront parks, and hiking and biking trails along the river for public use. We hope that all people will increasingly come to understand the river from geological, natural, historical and cultural perspectives and thus come to care for it and help to preserve it for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.
Picture courtesy of Craig Thompson. Craig has prints and note cards with many of the scenes used on this web site that are available for purchase - part of purchase price will be donated back to Friends of the Kaw. You can reach Craig at 816 531 7834.
Principal funding for Life on the Kaw was provided by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization promoting understanding of history, traditions, and ideas that shape our lives and build community.
Friends of the Kaw would also like to acknowledge Elizabeth Schultz, Dale Nimz, Benny Potts and Leah Hitcher who served as humanities consultants on this project. Their input was invaluable and much appreciated.