The Kansas Cowboy Experience
07-21-2008Home, home on the range…these are more than just words in the Kansas state song. They are words that describe the experiences and down home hospitality visitors will discover when they visit Kansas.
When Dr. Brewster Higley wrote these words on the banks of Beaver Creek near Athol, Kansas, in 1872, he was writing about his Kansas experiences of blue skies and endless prairie. 
Over the years Higley’s song became popular across America and was performed by singers ranging from 1920s cowboy singer Vernon Dalhart to Gene Autry and even Frank Sinatra. In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed it his favorite song and his enthusiasm spread across the country. That same enthusiasm for the song is part of the real Home on the Range experience offered in Kansas today.
No other state in the nation can claim a more varied past in American history than Kansas. Located in the geographic heart of the U.S., Kansas conjures up images of cowboys, Old West gun fighters, pioneer trails, cattle drives, frontier forts, and American Indian culture. And all of these images exist today in tourist attractions found across the state.
In the open prairie of the Flint Hills, cowboys can still be seen working the cattle, much like their counterparts from the 1800s. Go back in time at the C.O.W.B.O.Y.S. (Cockeyed Old West Band of Yahoos Society) Fall Round-up or Spring Gathering in Ellsworth and experience an 1870s cowboy camp featuring gunfights and a cowboy ball. The J.L. Canyon Ranch in Brookville, the Moore Ranch near Bucklin and the Victorian Veranda Country Inn* in Lawrence each offers city slickers the opportunity to participate in real cattle drives. Guests at ranch bed and breakfasts are given the opportunity to participate in daily ranching activities or to just spend time relaxing. The Circle S Ranch outside Lawrence is a luxurious country inn located in the middle of a 1,200-acre cattle ranch. Guests can watch the ranch hands work with the ranch’s 400-head of cattle and 20-head of buffalo, or they can hike or bike on the many trails throughout the property.
The larger-than-life cowboy legends of the Old West were born on the frontier plains and in the cattletowns of Kansas. Wichita grew from a cattletown to the largest city in the state. A visit to the Old Cowtown Museum a 17-acre living history village with costumed characters recreating 1870s Old West life will have you humming Home on the Range all the way home.
Few towns capture the spirit of the American cowboy as Dodge City. Stroll the streets of the Boothill Museum, a re-creation of the original frontier town where fact and fiction go hand-in-hand. Not only does Boot Hill provide an insight into the genuine Old West, it also has fun with the fictional Old West as seen in the TV series Gunsmoke. Dodge City celebrates its history with Dodge City Days each summer.
There are other original cowtowns in Kansas with museums dedicated to their role in the cattle drives. Abilene was the end of the line for thousands of longhorn cattle driven from Texas on the Chisholm Trail, established by Kansas native Jesse Chisholm. Historic Abilene showcases the history of the Chisholm Trail at the Dickinson County Heritage Center. Museums with exhibits relating to the Chisholm Trail can also be found in Wellington and Caldwell. The Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita is. The Old West still lives in many other Kansas communities as well; Caldwell, the “border queen,” and Ellsworth, “the wickedest town in the West,” help keep the cowboy image alive year round.
For many Kansans, the Old West remains part of modern day life. Professional, regional, high school, 4-H, and ranch rodeos demonstrate the skills of rodeo cowboys and real working cowboys. The Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City is the oldest continuously held rodeo in Kansas. The Dodge City Rodeo is rated one of the top PRCA rodeos in the country. Other major professional rodeos take place in Medicine Lodge, Phillipsburg, Pretty Prairie, Coffeyville, Abbyville, Abilene, and Mound City. In ranch rodeos, contestants must be actual working cowboys and compete as teams rather than as individuals.
The Wild West wouldn’t be wild without the outlaws. The Dalton brothers gang stands out as perhaps the most infamous in Kansas. In October 1892, they attempted to rob two banks at the same time. Visitors can learn more of the Dalton story at the Dalton Defenders Museum in Coffeyville. Nearly 300 miles to the west in Meade the home of the Dalton brothers’ sister, Eva Dalton Whipple, is restored to its original 1887 appearance. The tour of this hideout home also includes the gang’s underground escape tunnel leading from the house to the barn.
The settling of the West brought pioneer traffic on the Santa Fe, California, Oregon, and Smoky Hill trails and with it a frontier military history. Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley, Fort Hays, Fort Larned, and Fort Scott were gatekeepers to the American West and have excellent museums and living history programs on 19th-century military life. Two of the forts, Fort Scott and Fort Larned, are National Historic Sites. Black cavalry soldiers were stationed in Kansas and two black cavalry monuments are at Fort Leavenworth and in Junction City, home of Fort Riley. Travel the Frontier Military Scenic Byway for a history driving tour along the state’s eastern edge.
The state is named after the Kanza Indians, meaning “People of the South Wind”, who once inhabited our state. While many of the early tribes were forced to move to Oklahoma, four nations remain in Kansas. The state’s American Indian culture is honored in many museums, including the Mid-America All-Indian Center in Wichita, the Pawnee Indian Village Museum near Republic, the Native American Heritage Museum near Highland, and the El Cuartelejo Pueblo Ruins near Scott City. The Kaw Mission in Council Grove and the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway are state historic sites with living history programs. Indian pow wows are held across the state. The Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence offers a self-guided tour, including its Medicine Wheel Earthwork, and a cultural center.
Most of America’s virgin tallgrass prairie is located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas. Walk in the prairie in Kansas and you will experience one of the four untouched tallgrass prairies left in the world and the last one in North America. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Strong City, the only unit of the National Park System dedicated to the tallgrass prairie, and the Konza Prairie Natural Area near Manhattan are just a few of the places to experience the beauty of the prairie. The Cimarron National Grassland near Elkhart offers experiences in a short grass ecosystem.
In Kansas, you can hike or take a guided tour through the prairie or have an adventure in a covered wagon as it crosses the prairie by day and makes camp by night under the starlight Kansas sky. At Cottonwood Falls, climb on the back of a 1950s wheat truck for a Prairie Drifter excursion into the prairie at sunset. The nearby Cassoday Café* is a good place for food and gossip and has been serving both to ranchers and cowboys since 1879.
Kansas is still home on the range for American bison. Two state wildlife refuges, the Sandsage Refuge in Garden City and the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in Canton, offer guided tours into the prairie to view these magnificent creatures up close. Other herds can be viewed up-close at the Smoky Hill Bison Company near Lindsborg, or from a distance at Big Basin Preserve near Ashland, Fort Hays and north of Pittsburg.
As you drive through the rolling hills of the prairie and past amber fields of grain, take time to stop in one of the small Kansas towns that welcome visitors with famed Midwestern hometown hospitality symbolized in the song as well.
To plan your Home on the Range visit to Kansas, please contact the Kansas Department of Commerce, Travel & Tourism Division, 1000 S.W. Jackson Street, Suite 100, Topeka, KS, 66612-1354, or by phone at (785) 296-2009. Visit the Kansas Travel & Tourism Division Web site at http://www.TravelKS.com.