Breweries and Bootmakers

Carol Jenkner

 

            In October, 1876 the Larned Press noted that there was a large boot sign on the east side of Broadway at Collins Harness Shop. That suggests that Larned had a bootmaker, an important craftsman at a time when cowboys wanting boots were pouring into Kansas on the cattle drives. Although the boot sign doesn’t come with a name telling us who the bootmaker might have been, Kansas held some of the finest cowboy bootmakers of the time, and is in fact credited with actually creating the original cowboy boot. Texas, of course, also lays claim to this title! It is believed that the first cowboy boot was made by the Hyer Boot Company of Olathe, Kansas at the request of a cowboy looking for someone to create a very specific boot, one that would slip into a stirrup easily and that would have a heel that would keep the foot firmly in the stirrup.

            Acknowledged as one of the finest makers of cowboy boots, John Mueller’s name was best known in Dodge City although he also made boots in Ellsworth, Abilene and Great Bend. He is known to have had a large boot sign hanging outside his Dodge City shop. The boot was also John Mueller’s cattle brand when he left the boot-making business to go into the cattle trade, a mistake that cost him his livelihood and his fine home in Dodge City. His entire herd was wiped out in the famous blizzard of 1886.

            Along with cowboy boots comes brew! In Kansas’ early days there were many breweries, many German-owned (the Germans love their beer!), but when Kansas declared itself a dry state in 1881, the breweries were driven out of business. Kansas’ prohibition lasted from 1881 until 1948, the longest prohibition of any state. The first post prohibition brewery in Kansas was Free State Brewing Company opened in 1989, the first licensed brewery in Kansas since prohibition. Brew pubs were allowed in 1987.

            Many German communities made their own beer, but the only known alcoholic beverage known to be manufactured in Larned was an alleged bootlegger who sold alcohol to Rose Chapman for an illegal saloon where the lumber yard now stands – allegedly.

            Put on your boots, we’ll provide the brew; come out to the Santa Fe Trail Center on July 23 for Boots and Brew.

 

Larned’s Health Resort

2022

By Carol Jenkner

Education Director

 

            What did you do over the Labor Day weekend? Did you take a family trip to one of the area lakes? Go boating or fishing? Or did you take a picnic and go for a swim at the local pool? At the end of the nineteenth century, Larned had a recreational salt lake, touted as the “Carlsbad of America”, a place where healing mineral waters could fix almost anything that ailed you. Billed as a health resort, the area offered almost anything a person wanting some fresh air and a dip in the healing waters could want. Don’t scoff! This place offered amusements on par with today’s water parks, not a new invention.

            The idea took root when workmen, digging for coal deposits, hit a vein of salt water that shot into the air at a height of several feet like a geyser. Senator J.W. Rush, president of Larned’s First National Bank, saw the potential of a mineral water spring, referring to it as the Kansas version of “Carlsbad of America”, an opulent hotel and spa located in Indiana. Gaining support for the project, a small lake was dug, about a city block square, and to a depth of about four feet. It quickly filled with salt water from the flowing well.

            Bath houses were built that offered a salt water plunge, and hot and cold showers and tubs. A photo in the Panorama of Progress: A Century of Living, published by the Tiller and Toiler covering the years 1872-1972 gave an idea of the extent of the construction that went on to create Larned’s own Carlsbad of America spa.

            There were giant slides, diving platforms, boat rentals and stadium seating for viewing the goings-on out in the water. There was even a bandstand erected in the middle of the lake where Thompson’s Military Band held nightly concerts. Imagine being rowed out in a band uniform with your instrument and stepping from a rocking row boat onto a platform in the middle of a small lake!

            The spa had a few good years before it was abandoned because seeping salt water began to kill vegetation in the surrounding area. Angry landowners complained, threatening legal action. The resort was closed and the lake allowed to dry up. Thus ended Senator Rush’s Kansas version of Carlsbad of America.

           

 

 

Marking the Santa Fe Trail: Part 3

Carol Jenkner

Education Director

 

            Little by little the project to mark the Santa Fe Trail initiated by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kansas began to move forward. In 1905, January 29, Kansas Day, was designated Trail Day and school superintendents across the state were urged to have students participate in a series of essay contests. Getting schools involved was part of the DAR plan to raise funds as well.

            Also in 1905, the DAR was contacting towns along the route of the Santa Fe Trail, asking them to change the names of streets along portions of the trail to The Old Santa Fe Trail. Not every town was eager to do this, but travelers along portions of the trail today may see streets called Trail Street, Santa Fe Avenue, Santa Fe Trail Street, and etcetera.

            The committee working to create the markers was looking at materials and details to be etched into the monuments. They finally settled on: “Santa Fe Trail 1822-1872 marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Kansas”. The material originally proposed for the markers was cement building stone. The final decision was made to create the markers out of red granite from Granite, Oklahoma. Why are all of the red granite markers different shapes and sizes? We will find out next week.

            The Standard History of Kansas, Volume 2 tells the story of a mystery surrounding the markers set across Kansas. The Secretary of the State Historical Society reported in 1908 that the DAR raised funds for and set 89 markers. An additional six markers were paid for and set by special interest groups. That adds up to 95 markers and yet when one begins to look at each location and its marker the number becomes 96 markers. According to the secretary: “This discrepancy has caused hours and hours of arithmetic and searching, and much exhaustion of temper, without avail.”