More Kansans need to see Kansas and its potential as TV journalist Bill Kurtis does. He told a regional economic development group in Chanute Wednesday, “the No. 1 industry in America right now is tourism,” especially with boomers hitting retirement. “They want to go to a place where they can learn and experience something. We need to be ready.” Especially as more Americans continue to move to cities, he said, the state’s tourism lures could include natural prairie, historic sites, working ranches and showcases for local artisans. Kurtis, who owns a 8,000-acre ranch near Sedan, called for Kansas towns to set aside past rivalries and work regionally on their tourism potential. “You do it and I’ll sell it, by God,” he told the gathering. “We’ll have them rushing to this place. Do it before someone else gets the idea.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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14 Comments
the best touring they have down there in that area- is hunting.
Actually what I always imagine when I’m down in that area, are indians atop horses standing on top of the hills. Maybe they could do some big indian, frontier type celebration, or come live like the wagon train folks did.
The problem though with that, don’t build a lot of buildings that would ruin the landscape that makes it look like that in the first place. The wheel marks in the hills and the electrical lines just don’t jive with what it would have looked like back then.
The state should buy up a bunch of tax subsized struggling farms in western Kansas.
Import herds of bison, elk and antelope (the native species) that used to roam free there.
Build some cabins and, voila, you’ve got the Serengeti right here in the Plains.
It’s simple and sustainable.
It doesn’t involve pumping massive amounts of ground water from our aquifers and using fossile fuels as fast as possible.
But it does take some vision.
Last summer, Bill Kurtis spoke to a Pratt Chamber of Commerce dinner at Pratt’s fairgrounds/4H building.
I arrived about 20 minutes early just as Mr. Kurtis and the first guests were arrriving so we all visited informally. A light summer shower was passing by at the time making the trees along the Ninnescah River and the downtown Pratt business buildings to the north glimmer in the evening sun.
Mr. Kurtis said he had arrived early so he could tour Pratt. He asked many questions about Pratt’s economy, business district (most storefronts continue to be occupied), the effect of the enlarged Wal-Mart store, the rapid flowing Ninnescah River, the oil, gas and agriculture business in the vicinity. Fortunately a cattle businessman was present to help answer Bill’s penetrating agriculture questions.
Mr. Kurtis’s speech was equally interesting and illuminating. He mentioned successes in the towns near his Sedan, Kansas ranch in southeastern Kansas.
Bill Kurtis and his sister, State Senator Jean Schodorf from Wichita, I believe, grew up in Independence, Kansas. Bill is certainly a natural resource in Kansas and his advice should be listened to carefully.
Bill Kurtis fancies himself a journalist, and now he’s an advocate for rural Kansas. But he doesn’t live here, he swoops in from Chicago, makes high-sounding noises, and leaves again.
Years ago it was Frank and Deborah Popper, a couple idiots from Rutgers University in goddamn New Jersey who wanted to move all the people out of Kansas and let the buffalo roam free in the “Buffalo Commons.” They were happy to tell Kansas what to do as well, from well outside the borders.
So please tell me again why we should take any of them seriously?
“Russell” — is that your name or residence? If residence, you know a lot about the shortage of water in Kansas.
Regarding Bill Kurtis, I recall when he was the national anchorman on one of the national TV morning news shows, such as Good Morning America. I believe he does continue to put on documentories from Chicago. Obviously, his heart is in southern Kansas where his large ranch is located.
In Kansas, 10,000 acres spells “large ranch.” A couple days ago, the EAGLE newspaper described another 10,000 acre ranch east of Wichita that was recently purchased by some Wichita investors. Several ranches in Barber County and Chase County contain 10,000 acres or a little more, assembled back in the 1800’s.
Regarding “Buffalo Commons,” as I recall, the authors also included portions of Nebraska, Oklahoma panhandle, Texas panhandle and eastern Colorado. Not so coincidentally, those areas are underlain by remaining remnants of the fabled and overused ancient Ogallala aquifer. The Ogallala was said to hold as much water in its gravel substratas as Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes.
Now, if this aquifer continues to be pumped down for agricultural irrigation, ethanol production, and of course municipal water sources — someday even the buffalo won’t be able to live here much less than people.
Politicians generally won’t talk about this in any detail. In fact, some see “future president” when they look in their morning mirror so they expect to be long gone when Kansas dries up.
Even today, as it snows, the “dry line” of the Arkansas River is moving inexorably eastward, already northeast of Dodge City, heading towards Kinsley and Great Bend, and eventually to Hutchinson and Wichita.
So, don’t buy any pet buffaloes if you live in western Kansas.
Bill Curtis is a native Kansan and has fond memories of his childhood in Independence. Perhaps his interest in the state of Kansas should be more appreciated as he has a strong and credible national voice because of his career as commentator and host of various television shows.
Some of the transplants in this blog are the most obnoxious. Those who are not Native Kansans appear to make the loudest complaints about Kansas.
My ancestors came to Kansas before it was a state in 1856 and went to communties in SE, SW and Central Kansas. I am deeply rooted in Kanas.
Aye, just 80 years after the Declaration of Independence my family has been here and continues to stay.
For sure, jobs and careers have carried us globally, but we always come back to Kansas. We retire here, raise our children here and make Kansans’s common values a legacy so we may pass that down to our children.
(trips from soapbox as he climbs down)
Why the putdown of Bill Kurtis living in Chicago and swooping into Kansas to give his thoughts?
As I recall, Bob Dole considers himself a true Kansan and I haven’t seen him move back to Kansas to set up housekeeping – have you?
JWink,
How is Sedan doing? It’s been over 6 years since I’ve been there and haven’t kept up. My best friend’s family has a little land there, and I stayed there with her a couple of weekends, out in the country and roaming through abandoned houses.
I know Sedan had a big setback when the highway was rerouted south of the town. I also know they’ve done a lot of things to try to draw visitors there. (The best onion rings I’ve ever had were at a small, local restaurant in Sedan.)
Does anyone know if things have gotten better economically for Sedan?
I was at the speech in Chanute. One of the things Mr. Kurtis spoke of is that Kansans do not value what is already here. Kansans have no clue as to the beauty of the plains and the adventure of staying on a small farm could bring tourists in from major cities that want their families to experience the “simple” life. The legislature several years ago cleared the way on liability for farmers for just this sort of adventure…it is called Agri-tourism and it is another way the family farm can continue to be held by the “family”….
Rather than the government buying up the land why not just encourage private efforts to do the same thing. Allow for ‘wholesale’ purchase of hunting permits and subsequent resale. That would then be an incentive to return land to habitat.
As our water runs out we better be looking at “life after irrigation”
Whistlestop,
Have you spent any time on a family farm, especially during late spring, summer, and fall? Families are WORKING on a family farm, with no time to cater to the tourists. What you described would be a nightmare.
That would leave only corporate farms to handle the tourists. And, hey, let’s just make those corporate farmers richer!
Bad idea. Bad, bad idea.
Just because a person is from Kansas and they move elsewhere does not mean that they dislike the state or should not have any input into it. People move for a variety of reasons including joining the military, jobs or they marry somebody from somewhere else. Let’s say you graduate high school and join the military and they send you to Ft McPherson in Georgia and while there you fall in love with a nice local girl and marry her and start a family and then get a good job in Georgia when you get out. Does that mean that you should “show your love” for Kansas and give all that up to come back? I don’t think so.
I love Kansas, the wide open spaces, the sunsets, the down-to-earth, polite, and friendly people…I was born here and I’ll die here if given the choice.