A long tradition of July 4th celebrations in Kansas
Patriotism has always sparked a chord among people in Kansas.
Celebrating the Fourth of July is dear to us.
In the 83,000 square miles of Kansas, we have an Independence creek and a Fourth of July creek.
Almost every town throws celebrations with fireworks, picnics and flags that flutter in the hot Kansas wind.
It is tradition.
But celebrating – more often than not – depends, if you are a farmer, on how far along you are with wheat harvest.
“If it is harvest, I’ll be out cutting wheat,” said Leo Oliva, Kansas historian and farmer from Rooks County. “That’s usually how I spend Fourth of July. Now, we have been known to knock off early enough in order to see the fireworks.”
The earliest recorded Fourth of July celebration in what is now Kansas was in 1804 during the Lewis and Clark expedition. The explorers fired a cannon and drank some whiskey.
Decades later, Fourth of July celebrations were observed at Kansas forts, Oliva said.
“All the military posts always had big celebrations on the Fourth,” Oliva said. “They would have a special program with the commanding officer or post chaplain giving a talk about the meaning of Independence Day.”
Then, still later as settlement spread across the prairies, communities turned the holiday into all-day celebrations.
Marshall Murdock, founding editor and publisher of The Wichita Eagle, wrote an advance about the July Fourth weekend in 1872, saying Wichitans could hear bands, see regatta races on the river, gawk at hot-air balloon ascensions, hear speeches, attend dances, drink barrels of ice-cold lemonade, and view a parade and plenty of fireworks.
In 1925, Kansans saw what would become their state flag for the first time at a Fourth of July parade in Lincoln.
At the time, Hazel Avery ran a dress shop in Lincoln and liked Kansas history. That’s how she came up with the symbols for the state flag. Someone noticed how beautiful the flag was and contacted a state legislator and, well, the rest is history. The Kansas flag was adopted in 1927.
In recent decades, Fourth of July celebrations have evolved into food and fireworks fests.
Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @beccytanner.
Fourth of July celebrations
Four things to do on the Fourth:
1. Watch fireworks - Fireworks over the river launch at 10 p.m. near the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium downtown and will be set to music played on 97.1-FM. Low-level pyrotechnics will also be fired from a barge in the river.
1. Attend the Independence Day Block Party, 1 to 10:30 p.m. near McLean Boulevard and the Arkansas River. A 1,000-foot water slide by Slide the City will be set up across the Lewis Street Bridge with tickets starting at $25. The Lawrence-Dumont Stadium parking lot will have free bounce houses and a track for skateboard riders until 6 p.m. The Hyatt lawn will have a beer garden with free concerts at 3 and 7 p.m.
3. Adopt a pet. It’s Independence Day for pets at the Kansas Humane Society, 3313 N. Hillside, where adult dogs and kittens can be adopted for $17.76 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Adults cats are free.
4. Catch a parade. The Derby Independence Day parade starts at 10 a.m. at Panther Stadium, 925 E. Madison Ave. The Haysville parade begins at 8:30 a.m. at Haysville Middle School, 900 W. Grand. Park City’s Salute to Freedom begins at 9 a.m. at the Spangles on 61st Street North and includes a fly-over by the Commemorative Air Force. The Garden Plain parade is at 11 a.m. on Main Street. Hutchinson’s Patriots Parade kicks off at 10 a.m. on Main Street.
This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 6:32 PM with the headline "A long tradition of July 4th celebrations in Kansas."