Home on the Range cabin to be rededicated this weekend in Kansas
The restoration is complete, the landscaping is done, and all the finishing touches are in place.
This weekend marks the re-dedication of the Home on the Range cabin in Smith County and a celebration marking the 142nd anniversary of Brewster Higley building a cabin on the banks of Beaver Creek.
Higley penned the words to what would eventually become one of the most famous cowboy folk songs in the world and the official state song of Kansas.
Three years ago, the Higley cabin was crumbling and in desperate need of repair. As Kansas celebrated its 150th anniversary of statehood in 2011, a grassroots effort formed to renovate the cabin, which in 1973 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
More than $113,000 — much of it from the Sedgwick County area — was raised to preserve and restore the cabin to its original integrity. Some of the money was used to build nature walks, footbridges and wheelchair-accessible entry to the cabin.
El Dean Holthus said his aunt and uncle, Ellen and Pete Rust, owned the property for nearly 75 years. He credits them with saving the cabin and keeping it standing.
Holthus is also one of the coordinators for this weekend’s events.
“This whole area is being showcased this weekend,” Holthus said. “We have Higleys coming from California, Arizona, Oklahoma and Missouri.
“The response from across the nation is really good. If we have nice weather, we could get a nice crowd.”
In 1954, when the cabin was first renovated by the Smith Center Rotary Club and dedicated with a ceremony featuring Kansas Gov. Edward Arn, more than a 1,000 people attended the event, Holthus said.
The 2014 celebration is expected to draw one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Smith County, Holthus said. Events include concerts, re-enactors, vendors and special exhibits.
The cabin was built in 1872. Higley, a pioneer doctor from Indiana, originally built a dugout on the site when he homesteaded in 1871.
It is believed he wrote the poem “My Western Home” — which later became the words to “Home on the Range” — in the dugout. The song was first published in the Smith County Pioneer in 1873, according to the cabin’s nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places.
It became the official state song of Kansas in 1947.
“I think this is one place every Kansan should go,” said Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, which works toward preserving and enhancing rural culture in Kansas. “To have this place intact and now restored is a pretty cool thing.
“You can see the words of the song come to life when you are standing there.”
Home on the Range rededication
Saturday and Sunday’s celebration of the Home on the Range cabin in Smith County honors Brewster Higley, who wrote “Home on the Range,” and coincides with the annual Higley reunion, normally held each year in Atchison County.
Gates open each day at 8 a.m. Historical re-enactors will include a portrayal of Libby Custer, wife of General George Armstrong Custer; Buffalo soldiers, and gunfighters. In addition, there will be a horse trainer, musical concerts, vendors and a special evening concert featuring the Prairie Rose Rangers in concert at the Smith Center High School Auditorium.
Events on Sunday include a a cowboy church service and the formal rededication of the cabin. Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer will be the featured speaker.
Tickets for all events Saturday, including the evening concert, are $20 per person. Admission is free on Sunday. Proceeds from the event will go toward maintaining the cabin.
People are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.
The cabin in Smith County is a 3 ½-hour drive from Wichita and is near the Kansas-Nebraska border. It is eight miles north of Athol on K-8, then one mile west.
For more information or to purchase your tickets online, go to http://thehomeontherange.com/re-dedication-event-october-4-5-2014/.
This story was originally published September 30, 2014 at 7:05 AM with the headline "Home on the Range cabin to be rededicated this weekend in Kansas."