Kansas sites celebrate National Park Service’s 100 years

Throughout the summer, Ellen Jones has seen an uptick in the number of buses stopping to tour Fort Larned National Historic Site, where she is park ranger of the Indian Wars-era fort on the Santa Fe Trail. She’s also seeing more families from across the country stopping in Larned, about 130 miles northwest of Wichita, as part of cross-country road trips to explore National Park Service sites.

Jones wants to see as many locals exploring her fort – and all of Kansas’ national park sites – and is expecting that this week’s National Park Service birthday celebrations will attract Kansans.

“If they know it’s a big celebration that only comes about once in a lifetime, then hopefully they’ll go the extra mile to see what we’re all about,” Jones said.

The National Park Service has celebrated its centennial throughout 2016 and this Thursday, Aug. 25, is its actual 100th birthday. Many sites – including the five in Kansas – have events planned.

“The whole goal of the centennial is to help people find their parks, become more aware of them and care about them,” Lauren Blacik, assistant centennial coordinator for the National Park Service Midwest Region, said in a news release. “If people have wonderful, unforgettable experiences right in the state they live, then that’s a centennial success.”

President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service by signing an act on Aug. 25, 1916, and established oversight for a growing list of parks that had started with Yellowstone National Park in 1872. The National Park Service is a bureau of the Department of the Interior tasked with preserving local history and creating close-to-home recreational opportunities. There are 412 sites covering more than 84 million acres, with 59 national parks plus monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. There is at least one site in every state. Kansas has a national preserve and four national historic sites. There also are parts of five national trails in the state.

During the birthday celebrations – Aug. 25 through Aug. 28 – admission is free to all 412 sites. Admission is always free in Kansas, however Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, Nicodemus National Historic Site, Fort Scott National Historic Site and Fort Larned National Historic Site all have special events planned next weekend. All events are free and open to the public.

Jones has been working more than a year on Fort Larned’s Picnic in the Park celebration scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27. Visitors are encouraged to pack a lunch and stay for the entire day of special events in addition to seeing nine original buildings at the 1859-1878 Army post, historical exhibits and living-history demonstrations.

“You only turn 100 once and I want it to have a certain energy to it with something for everyone,” she said.

There will be art classes, a ranger presentation on the history of the National Park Service and another on the history of Fort Larned, musicians playing old fashioned instruments, a prairie dog show, animal exhibits and hands-on crafts activities. The local high school band director has re-established the Fort Larned Post Band with students and community musicians; they will perform at 1 p.m. There will be a talent show after the band, with a focus on old-fashioned, 1860s-era talents, for example singing, magic, skill demonstrations, storytelling and card tricks. Call 620-285-6911 to reserve a spot in the talent show.

“One of our featured activities is ‘Foods of the Cultures’ which will be small samplings of food from different cultures like German, Native American, African, Mexican,” Jones said. “We want to show that because of our history, we were a community where different cultures blended.”

Jones and the staff at Kansas’ other National Park Service sites are pleased with the boost in awareness and attendance the centennial celebration is bringing. Through midsummer, the National Park Service was on track to break last year’s attendance record of 307 million visitors.

“I’m hoping the centennial encourages more visitation at all parks,” said Heather Brown, chief of interpretation at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. “That’s very important for the next 100 years, and it’s especially important to instill a sense of pride and stewardship in the next generation. The parks belong to everyone.”

In addition to Picnic in the Park at Fort Larned Historic Site, here’s what you’ll find at each of the state’s sites this week:

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Eighty miles northeast of Wichita near Strong City, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie and its cultural resources. Visitors to the preserve, which turns 20 in November, can see a portion of its 11,000 acres through guided bus tours or by hiking on 40 miles of trails. At the ranch headquarters is an 1880s limestone mansion, three-story limestone barn and one-room schoolhouse. The preserve’s Picnic in the Park on Saturday, Aug. 27 is called “Voices of the Past,” and will celebrate people and their stories. Hear a first-person characterization of a historic surveyor at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. They are inviting anyone who has stories about the park to speak, and they will record oral histories from folks with a direct connection to the ranch. Bring lunch to enjoy on the grounds and have birthday cake at 1 p.m. That’s when organizers will unveil the Centennial Quilt, which tells the story of the natural and cultural resources of the preserve. The preserve is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will have its regular slate of wagon rides, bus tours, house tours and activities.

Fort Scott National Historic Site

In the eastern Kansas town of Fort Scott, you can enjoy your picnic while watching a vintage baseball game on the grounds of an 1840s frontier fort. On Saturday, Aug. 27, Fort Scott National Historic Site’s Picnic in the Park activities begin at 11 a.m. with period music by the Holmes Brigade Minstrels and old-fashioned family activities like “Hunt the Hare” and “Duck on the Rock.” The Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site will serve free centennial birthday cake and ice cream toward the end of the picnic, which will wrap up at 1 p.m. when the baseball game starts. Starting at noon, baseball player Adam LaRoche, who graduated from Fort Scott High School and recently retired from the Chicago White Sox, will sign autographs until he throws out the first pitch in a game between the Topeka Westerns and the Wichita Bull Stockings played with 1860s rules, uniforms and equipment.

Nicodemus National Historic Site

The Nicodemus National Historic Site in western Kansas preserves the oldest and only remaining all-black settlement west of the Mississippi River and interprets African American involvement in the westward expansion and settlement of the Great Plains. The five historic buildings here became a unit of the National Park System in 1996. The Nicodemus Historical Society is partnering with the site to celebrate the site’s 20th anniversary as well as the NPS centennial with a living history presentation starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27. Re-enactors will portray newspaper editors, merchants, ministers and other townspeople from the timeframe of 1886-87 in “Is Nicodemus Getting the Railroad?” at 1:30 p.m. Western National Parks Association will serve birthday cake and punch during the event, and local musicians will perform.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Located at Monroe Elementary School, once a segregated school in Topeka, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is an interactive museum that documents the landmark decision that ended legal segregation in America’s public schools. “A Tale of Two Nations: Reconnecting our African-Native Heritage” is the site’s centennial celebration on Saturday, Aug. 27. The event celebrates the interconnectedness of African American and Native American cultures through art, music and commonalities of lifestyles. Programming is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will include music and dance performances, art exhibits, spoken word poets, storytelling, keynote speakers, interpreters dressed as buffalo soldiers, loom demonstrations, kids activities and giveaways.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Kansas sites celebrate National Park Service’s 100 years."