ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those interested in learning more about Seward County history will soon have just that chance thanks to the Seward County Historical Society.
The Seward County Historical Society (SCHS) will be hosting a free two-part course on Seward County history Jan. 10 and 17, with each session starting at 10:30 a.m.
“Our event is sort of a crash course in Seward County history, because we are, of course, the Seward County Historical Society, but we also know not everyone local who loves history knows where to start with it,” Coronado Museum Director Nathan Dowell said. “We wanted to provide a sort of an impromptu seminar that will go over some of the bigger topics in Seward County history so people have a chance to learn and really understand what we’re working from with everything that we do here. I will be talking about prehistoric Kansas, prehistoric Seward County, and the very early recorded history of people in this area. We then have a lot of other topics such as Native American presence in the area and Coronado’s journey and other major events. We will be talking about county seat wars, the railroads, the Dust Bowl and the Liberal Army Airfield, among other topics.”
“Usually, January is a slow time, and we thought it would be a fun thing to do while we’re slowed down. And it was just a thought that occurred to us,” SCHS Member Lidia Hook-Gray said. “We started talking about it around October or November, and decided January would be a great time since December is so busy. We just thought January would be a good time when maybe people would have a couple of free mornings and come out. We’re always thrilled to have people actually listen to our history, because I know there are some people who just glaze over. But we have such great history in this area, and it’s such interesting history, and we just thought it would be fun to let people know, and hopefully they’ll get hungry and want to learn more.”
Dowell and Hook-Gray said they hope to see a large turnout from the community.
“If you’ve ever wondered what we’re about, or if you’ve ever heard allusions to something but the words didn’t mean anything to you ... for example, you could hear about Springfield or Fargo Springs or Coronado, but those words might not necessarily mean anything people who haven’t dug through old history books and done that research,” Dowell said. “If you’ve heard about these topics and are curious about them, or if you’ve heard people talk about the museum, but you don’t really know what it’s about or the story it’s telling, take a day or two on these Saturdays and find out. This really is a time when people can start from the beginning and learn the basics in an atmosphere that is designed to teach you. And I think that’s going to be a really cool thing.”
“And history can be fun to learn. Everything will be fast paced, because we don’t want anyone to fall asleep or glazing over, but I think it’ll be just a hoot to hear. And some of the stories are just great that and they’re not stories, they actually happened. We had a Beer City, we had the Springfield versus Fargo Springs and Woodsdale versus Hugoton battles and a real no man’s land area in the Oklahoma Panhandle where there was just no law whatsoever,” Hook-Gray said. “A lot of people don’t realize how for probably, 30 years, there was absolutely no law there, and you could just do whatever you want to. There were also multiple railroads that came through, including the Rock Island and another line in the Oklahoma Panhandle. A lot of people might not know a lot of ghost railroads were planned and thought about and just did not materialize, and they were usually run by con artists and scammers. It’ll just be a lot of fun exploring all of that.”
With this being the museum’s first such event, Hook-Gray and Dowell said they have high hopes.
“We have a limit of 20, and so we’re going to cut it off then. And I think we have our classes already almost half full,” Hook-Gray said. “We know not everyone’s going to clamor for a history class, but if they have any interest at all, they should definitely come. We’re hoping people will enjoy it. If you can come one weekend, that’s great. If you can’t make it both weekends, that’s also fine.”
“We want to see people who are excited to learn, excited to contribute, and excited to discuss. And the cool thing about history is it can be a lot more surprising than you think because with all the topics we’re talking about, they don’t always go in the direction you would expect,” Dowell added. “For example, the Dust Bowl is a nationwide topic and very important in the history of the U.S., and Seward County is one of the few counties in Kansas that was right in the epicenter of what the Dust Bowl ultimately became. There’s so much to this history that goes deeper, goes in different directions than you would think. We hope they’re excited to be there, and we hope they’re excited to learn some things that they may not have expected to learn.”
Hook-Gray and Dowell said they hope attendees learn a lot from the sessions.
“History is exciting, and history is for everyone. Not everyone is going to want to dig deep into all the details, but I really do think history is for everyone. And I think it’s great having an introduction class like this that shows how there’s more to these topics than people might expect,” Hook-Gray said. “I really hope this works with all of the other programming we have going on to really communicate how the Historical Society is for all the people here, whether they’re visitors passing by or people who love history.”
“Sometimes we have these fun little events and we’ll get 25 or 30 people, which is not bad, but I’d like to see 40 or 50 or more and hear people say ‘The museum’s having an event, let’s go see what this is about, because that was so interesting, what we learned in January,’” Dowell said. “I’m hoping to get more visitation to the museum from the locals because Nathan has all kinds of people from everywhere come through here, but maybe not a lot of locals come by. And if you like this kind of programming, if you want to see more stuff like this, if you would like to see more seats available, let us know because feedback is what we operate on. We’ll make it happen.”
