Upcoming Events
Frederic Remington Area Historical Society
2023-2024 Programs
October 9, 2023 @ 7 P.M.
Centre Point Church
“Whitewater High School Senior Trips”
by Darryl Claassen
(note date change to 2nd Monday to coincide with Fred Fest weekend)
Beginning with a two-day trip in 1934, the Senior trips of Whitewater High School became legendary. The logistics of organizing and scheduling trips for graduating Seniors was nothing short of phenomenal. The trips were each two or three weeks long so required physical and mental discipline. The success of these trips is validated by the repetition for 29 years – save three years due to the war. Darryl Claassen has collected information and photographs on these trips.
Program co-sponsored by Friends of the Whitewater Library
November 6, 2023 @ 7 P.M.
“Pushin’ Horns” by Jim Gray
Remington High Band room
Pushin’ Horns is a snapshot of the everyday life of 19th-century cowboys (drovers), from gathering wild cattle to the delivery of the cattle at the Kansas railheads. Throughout his life, Gray has collected the stories and lived the life, gaining intimate knowledge of cowboy life on the cattle trails to Kansas and beyond. The Cowboy’s presentation is sure to put flesh and blood onto the bones of old trail stories; buried but not forgotten.
February 12, 2024 @ 7 P.M.
“The Busenitz Family” by Susan Busenitz Carp
Remington High Band room
David and Susan (Busenitz) Carp will share select diary entries her grandmother Justine (Wiebe) Busenitz wrote to chronicle her life with her husband John and their eleven children. The diary begins about eight years after the families of Justine and John came to America in 1893 and spans a little more than fifty years. Susan and David live in Wichita and have deep family roots in both the Wichita and Whitewater communities.
March 4, 2024 @ 7 P.M.
“Frederic Remington in Kansas” by Doug Claassen
Remington High Band room
Iconic Western Artist Frederic Remington attempted a career as a sheep rancher in Kansas. His time in northwestern Butler County was short, but his failure as a sheep rancher influenced his life’s work and left a mark on the community.
April 1, 2024 @ 7 P.M.
“Local Ranches on the Prairie” by Marcia Sebree
Remington High Band room
The Flint Hills represent a vast expanse of tallgrass prairie that extends into Marion County providing the perfect setting for large ranches with premium grazing land. Marcia will tell about some of the ranches and farms in the area that produced cattle, sheep, and some of the finest horses in the country. Marcia Sebree is the President of the Peabody (Kansas) Historical Society and the Director of the Peabody Historical Society and Museum complex.
May 4, 2024
(note date is Saturday)
Tour – Tallgrass Prairie Preserve/Z-Bar Ranch, 2480B KS-177, Strong City, Kansas
Join us for the Frederic Remington Area Historical Society 2024 tour to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and historic Z-Bar Ranch for a memorable time on the Kansas prairie. There is no entry fee required. All are welcome to join us on this special Ranger-guided FRAHS group tour of the ranch which begins at 10:00 AM on May 4.
Bring: Comfortable, closed-toe walking or hiking shoes (no sandals), long pants, jacket as needed for weather, hat, camera, bug spray, and water bottle. Bring some snacks and pack a lunch if you think you will get hungry while there.
Tour Schedule:
8:30 AM Visitor Center opens
8:30 -9:30 Arrive anytime between 8:30 and 9:30 and park in the paved parking lot. Enjoy a cool morning on the prairie. Check out the displays and gift shop in the Visitor Center. Go for a short walk around the grounds.
9:45 AM Gather at the top of the gravel driveway in front of the large barn and restroom building. A FRAHS guide will be there with the Ranger to greet you and to provide tour information. The special Ranger-guided FRAHS group tour begins at 10:00.
10:00-11:45 The Tallgrass Ranger will provide a guided tour of the ranch house, large stone barn, and a short spring wildflower walk.
12 Noon The guided tour concludes. You may stay to explore the grounds on your own (school house, hiking trails, additional buildings, Visitor Center, etc.) as your time permits.
Lunch is on your own. Restaurants in Strong City include: Subway, Jacalito’s Mexican Restaurant, and Lotus Café and Sweets. There are many other fine restaurants to suit your tastes located several minutes away in Emporia, Council Grove, and Cottonwood Falls. You can even picnic at the Z-Bar Ranch; picnic tables are available.
If you want to continue your historic prairie experience, travel to Council Grove and eat lunch at either the Hays House 1857 Restaurant (112 W. Main St.) or the Trail Days Café and Museum (803 Main St.). After lunch, visit the Kaw Mission State Historic Site (500 N. Mission or Msn St.) and Last Chance Store (516 Main St.) to learn more about pioneer life on the prairies. Stop by the Kaw Mission first as the Last Chance Store is open by appointment only. Both sites are open until 5:00 PM.
For more information, call Cynthia Rhodes, FRAHS Secretary, at 316-734-6642 or email at cynrhodes@gmail.com.