Pleasant Surprise on the Plains: Meeting Jim Richardson and Seeing the Sites in Central Kansas

Just before leaving for Kansas on December 26, 2011, my father handed me a list he wrote entitled “Exciting Things To Do While in Kansas.” It went like this:

1. Listen to dogs bark

2. Watch ice freeze and tornados form

3. Watch paint dry

4. Listen to old men talk about the weather

5. Listen after asking “right wing enough for you?”

6. Watch paint dry

7. Ask for a bowl of cold soup

8. Spread a rumor that a Super Walmart is taking over downtown businesses

9. Claim that you are a “Mormon Southern Baptist”

10. Attend a thumb twirling competition

11. Watch traffic lights change in public

Having never been to Kansas, I wasn’t sure what to expect – but I hoped I wouldn’t have to break out my father’s humorous to-do list out of boredom. As it turns out, there are plenty of reasons why a visit to Kansas is worthwhile!

 

I spent the first evening between Wichita and Hutchinson, Kansas with my girlfriend’s family opening Christmas gifts. I was surprised and delighted to receive an amazing DVD ROM set that includes a searchable archive of every National Geographic magazine published between 1888 and December 2009. What a treasure!

The next morning, we traveled to a small town called Buhler to see where my girlfriend grew up. The short trip uncovered two interesting geographical facts about Kansas that make it different from most of the states in the Southeast where I have spent my youth and young adulthood. The first is that Kansas roads were laid out in a near-perfect 1 mile X 1 mile grid. I’ve never seen roads so straight. Occasionally, the roads jog a bit this way and that, but that’s to account for the curvature of the Earth!

The second thing is that most of the small towns seem to be constructed around towering grain elevators. These concrete structures are a series of tall connected cylinders that store grain collected from surrounding fields which is then distributed to points beyond. I was fascinated by these grain elevators because of their cool shapes and colors.

Later that day, we returned to Hutchinson, Kansas to visit the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. The museum is located 650 feet underground in one of the largest seams of rock salt in the world, left behind by an evaporated Permian sea. After watching a brief safety video, donning a hard-hat, and strapping on a rescue breathing device, we were carted into a double decker elevator that can carry 30 people or so. Then, a large clanging metal door shut and soon we started to drop into a pitch black mine shaft that cost over $6 million dollars to dig.

Salt mined here is used for salting roads, in animal feed, for ice cream production, and in pharmaceutical products. Basically, miners blow up parts of the seam, crush up the rubble, and cart it to the surface, which they’ve done here since 1923. Table salt is mined using a different process that involves pumping large amounts of water underground, collecting the brine and evaporating out the salt.

Besides the exhibits explaining that salt-making process, we were able to view Hollywood memorabilia and other items stored safely underground by a company called Underground Vaults and Storage. Since the salt mine is so far underground, relatively far from fault zones, and has very low humidity, it makes a perfect place to store precious goods and documents.

The next day, we toured through a family cemetery and farm and then made our way to a small town that was founded by Swedes called Lindsborg. Lindsborg is very proud of its Swedish heritage and is filled with small gift shops and galleries. I enjoyed looking at the “Dala horses” that dotted the main street. Dala horses were originally carved from wood and were given to children as toys. Lindsborg has some creatively decorated Dala horses, my favorite being “Salvador Dala.”

As we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and took in the Dala decorations, we passed by a photo gallery. I was captured by the incredible quality of the photos that I could see through the window, some of which looked familiar. As it turned out, and to my great delight, we had stumbled upon the beautiful gallery of Jim Richardson, a photographer who has shot over 25 stories for National Geographic. Mr. Richardson lives in Kansas and travels the world photographing for magazines and teaching workshops. He specializes in environmental photography and rural life. One of his projects has been to document everyday life in a tiny town called Cuba, Kansas, which he has done for over 30 years. He also shot the December 2011 cover story about the King James Bible for National Geographic.

Mr. Richardson was very kind and spoke to me for a while about running a gallery. He explained that as a photographer, he wishes that his photojournalism sold, but that people want pictures that they relate to. Since he lives in Kansas, he sells Kansas to his customers – mostly landscapes and nature shots. We bought a box of 8 postcards that feature his work on the Kansas Tallgrass Prairie. He signed all 8 shots! It was an honor to meet him!

Over the next few days, I was treated to some other surprises. I loved watching huge flocks of Canada geese heading westward in the huge skies. We stopped near a field so that I could try to get some shots of the geese and then I noticed two men power paragliding. I ran out in the field to get some shots and then was treated to some really close passes as the men hot-shotted by me to give me some better pictures.

Kansas sunsets are fantastic too – especially at the confluence of the Arkansas (pronounced ArKansas (not like the state)) and Little Arkansas Rivers in Wichita. There, a beautiful monument to the Plains Indians is guarded by the “Keeper of the Plains.”

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center houses an amazing collection of space artifacts – including the real Apollo 13 capsule. There, I learned so much about the history of the US space program and its direct link to the team behind the Nazi development of the V1 and V2 rockets.

So yeah. I had a good time in Kansas and didn’t twiddle my thumbs even once.

Enjoy the rest of my photos below and leave a comment if you like. What photos did you take of your adventures over the Holidays?

Happy New Year from EmpyreanMedia!

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 9:54 pm. It is filed under Blog, Featured and tagged with Buhler, Hutchinson, Jim Richardson, Kansas, Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum, Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Lindsborg, National Geographic, Photography, power paragliding, Witchita. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.