Saturday, August 25, 2007

My Kansas Kronikles: Liberal: Kansas' second Beef Kingdom

Just north of the Oklahoma border, and not too far from Colorado is the town of Liberal.

From the town's website:
The year was 1872, and western Kansas consisted of mile after mile of waving prairie grasslands and one large, flowering river. Settlers traveling west on the Santa Fe, Jones and Plummer, and western cattle trails simply passed through thinking this area "uninhabitable". But one undaunted man, making his way west, did stop and settle. Mr. S.S. Rogers was the first homesteader in what would later become Liberal. Outside of the Cimarron River, water was very scarce in Southwestern Kansas and there was usually a charge for even a small amount; however Mr. Rogers always gave his water free to passing travelers. Quite often he would hear a reply of "that's mighty liberal of you" from the grateful recipients.

By 1885, Mr. Rogers had opened a general store and the government established an official Post Office. It seemed only natural to call the new town "LIBERAL".

Like Dodge City, Liberal and the to-be-blogged about later Garden City, Liberal is one of Kansas's "Beef Kingdoms." Its largest employer is National Beef Processing, it operates a large slaughterhouse not too far away from the "Liberal" sign pictured above.

Liberal has a museum. Operating in a fashion that's common in smaller towns, where it does not pay to specialize, it's museum celebrates Kansas' most famous fictional resident, Dorothy Gale, and its first European explorer, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. The museum, like many in Kansas focuses' on its pioneer roots.


Next to the museum there is a replica of Dorothy's house, and there's a Dorothy impersonator on its staff.

On the northeastern end of Kansas, near Interstate 70, there is an Oz Museum in Wamego. Not too far away in Nortonville is the Kansas Wizard of Oz 'N More Store store. Closer to home (for me) in Oz-ness in Oz Park in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. The author of the Wizard of Oz books, L. Frank Baum, was a Chicagoan. Supposedly Baum used to vacation in Chesterton, Indiana, not too far from Gary (this was 100 years ago), which inspired the people of Chesterton to organize an annual Wizard of Oz Festival each September.

(Yes, I'm rambling, but it's a Saturday post!)

Back to Kansas: Like the other Beef Kingdoms, Liberal has a large Hispanic population--perhaps 40 percent of the town is Hispanic. Hispanics being largely socially conservative, it's safe to say, in the contemporary sense, Liberal isn't very liberal. As if proof was needed, the nickname of the the Liberal High School sports teams is "The Redskins."

Next: Oklahoma's Panhandle.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:23 PM

    Liberal is a BIG beef town. I work at a hotel in town and we're constantly suggesting guests go across the street to the Cattlemans Cafe for some good local beef.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marathon Pundit11:41 PM

    I'm sure it's good, and the beef fresh.

    ReplyDelete