One of the most relaxing road trips you’ll ever take is just 20 minutes from Wichita
Go through the small gate of a fence off North Line Street in Belle Plaine, Kansas, and you’ll find yourself in one of the oldest arboretums between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
The historic nonprofit Bartlett Arboretum, founded in 1910, has already survived one pandemic, notes a two-part short film about its history that can be found on its website — and it can be a welcome respite for those looking for a socially distanced activity during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“People walk in here and their blood pressure drops, they breathe easier and they breathe better,” said Arb steward Robin Macy about the effects of wandering around the arb. She encourages picnics and leisurely exploring of the tree museum’s grounds.
The Arb, located about 20 miles south of Wichita, is open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as well as noon to 8 p.m. Thursday; the later hours on Thursday accommodate photographers who want to capture ideal natural light. Visitors can provide a $10 suggested donation for admission into a mailbox inside the gate.
Before the COVID pandemic, the Arb’s event calendar was more extensive, including concerts and other special events, but it still has a few select events visitors can take advantage of.
Visit on a Saturday morning and you can shop the small outdoor Arb market or take a gentle yoga class.
The market runs from 9 a.m. to noon and its primary vendors feature items that have a connection to the Arb: canned goods made by the granddaughter of the Arb’s founder; tomatoes, cantaloupe, okra and other produce grown in the Arb’s new food gardens; and whimsical birdhouses and furniture made from felled Arb trees created by one of the Arb’s “soil brothers.” Ever since purchasing the Arb more than 20 years ago, Macy has been rejuvenating and maintaining it with the help of about 50 or so volunteers whom she calls soil sisters and brothers.
The market will continue through the next several weeks, “until the food runs out,” Macy said.
The 10 a.m. weekly Saturday yoga class is held in the wide-open Big Z area, which takes its name from the zoysia grass that stretches in front of the Loblolly Stage. It’s led by Molly McFerson, a Derby school teacher who also lives on the property. A weekly 6:30 p.m. Thursday yoga class will start Sept. 10, McFerson said.
On Saturday, visitors heard strains of live Irish music from an Irish ceilidh, a term for a gathering, near the Arb’s Elephant Rock.
The Arb has several named areas, like the Terrace of Paris gardens, a fallen old cottonwood tree called the Sleeping Giant, a Trail of Champions that is for “sure-footed folks and goats” because of the nature of the path, and a treehouse called LaFave Loge named after deceased folk musician Jimmy LaFave who played a few concerts at the arb. Colorfully illustrated maps that indicate those areas are available for $3 each at the arb or download it for free at the arb’s website bartlettarboretum.com. (Click on the Reflect page and choose the Explore link on the right-hand menu of the page.)
The Arb is home to nine state and one national champion trees, which are designations given by the Kansas Forest Service and American Forests. The champion trees can be identified by the blue ribbons affixed to their trunks.
The Arb also has some other unique collections of trees, among them redbud, magnolia, cypress, Japanese maple and dogwood.
The Arb’s dawn redwood tree is another significant tree since it’s an example of the sole living species of redwood conifers that existed in prehistoric times. It grows next to the Arb’s Teeny Tiny Town, which is populated with child-sized buildings.
If you visit with anyone fascinated by dinosaurs, impress them with the fact that the dawn redwood is “an ancient tree that knew the dinosaurs,” according to the Arbor Day Foundation. The Arb’s particular tree was supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of several samples that the USDA provided to the Arb in the 1930s to see what might grow in Kansas.
Macy started the Arb’s food gardens within the past year after Belle Plaine’s sole grocery store closed. It’s a concept she calls “Arb to Table.”
Nearly 80 tomato plants, other vegetables and fruit, along with herbs, grow in the Victory Garden area and nearby hoop house and the produce is sold at the Saturday market. Produce that isn’t sold is donated to different community groups in Belle Plaine. Mary Gourlay, the granddaughter of Arb founder William Bartlett, who was a physician and naturalist, cans the produce grown at the Arb.
Bartlett and his descendants ran the Arb until the 1990s, when Macy, a math teacher and a singer who is known for her role as one of the founders of the former Dixie Chicks, came across the property and purchased it.
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 5:02 AM.