Category: Museum Blog
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Construction of the Wabaunsee County Courthouse, 1931
In 1931 Wabaunsee County constructed a new courthouse on the block bordered by 2nd Street, and 3rd Street, Iowa Street to Kansas Avenue in Alma, Kansas. The county had levied a one-mill property tax beginning in 1928 to raise the money for the courthouse construction. The building cost $148,357.57 to build, but no indebtedness was…
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Volland, Then and Now
Photographer and graphic artist, Tom Parish has created a collection of Volland, Kansas “re-photographs” which merge the images from historic photos with those taken today. Parish uses early Otto Kratzer photos from the Wabaunsee County Historical Society’s collection and then photographs the exact location today, from the same angle and point of view. Then, Parish…
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Freedom’s Frontier: Stories from the Western Border
Freedom’s Frontier: Stories from the Western Border is an exhibition of photographs, maps, and images introducing the public to the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area and how the Wabaunsee County region’s history and stories are tied to those of national importance. Designed as a large timeline, the display brings to life the local stories of…
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Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park
– by Michael Stubbs – The Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Preserve is a 50-acre hilltop prairie dedicated to Captain William Mitchell and the Connecticut Kansas Colony. Located three miles south of Wamego on highway 99 at Mitchell Prairie Lane. It is open to the public from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. William Mitchell…
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Alma’s Oldest Building, Palenske Hall
The oldest surviving building in Alma, Kansas is today known as Palenske Hall, named after Fred Palenske, the benefactor of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society. The building was built in 1873 for hotel operator, Peter Degan, however, in its early years the building most commonly housed saloons. This view by Gus Meier was taken in…
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WCHS Completes Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board Grant
Greg Hoots, of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society has completed work on his grant project, Preserving Memories: Digitizing History, which digitizes over 400 photographs and manuscripts belonging to Alma photographer and businessman, Louis Palenske. The project funds the digitization work which includes the creation of high-resolution scans of photographs and manuscripts and the placement of…
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Paxico
A Tale of Three Towns: Old Paxico, Newbury and Paxico By Doug Hiegert The land we know as Kansas, along with most of the Central Plains in 1850, was unorganized territory with various Indian reservations in what is now the state. Kansas Territory was opened to white settlement on May 30, 1853, and in 1859, Wabaunsee…
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McFarland
Located in the beautiful Mill Creek Valley, McFarland was founded by S.H. Fairfield in June of 1887. The town was platted at the junction point where the Rock Island Railroad branched Northwest to Denver and the Pacific coast, and southwest toward the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Fairfield named his new town “McFarland” after his friend…
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Maple Hill
The name “Maple Hill” was coined by Isabella (Bourassa) Higganbotham, who was appointed the settlement’s first postmaster on May 1, 1862, providing mail service to the few families in the area. Maple Hill Township was established ten years later. Settlement increased dramatically with the arrival of several wealthy Eastern families. William A. Pierce, son of…
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Lake Wabaunsee
Learn more about the story of Lake Wabaunsee by clicking the link below: The Early History of Lake Wabaunsee: 1933-1945