The Hesston College Alumni Association invites alumni and friends to participate in the ninth annual Explore Kansas!, a venture to northwest Kansas on Thursday and Friday, June 3 and 4.
Dallas Stutzman, director of Alumni Relations, says the purpose of the annual Explore Kansas! is twofold. “We want to enjoy the company of alumni, friends, and faculty and staff of Hesston College,” he said, “and to encourage new learning and appreciation of Kansas-architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, customs, geography, history and people.”
This year’s trip will explore sites along Highway 24 and the Solomon River Valley. Thursday, June 3 begins with a 3:30 p.m. charter bus departure from Hesston Mennonite Church to Hays, Kan., and a stop at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. The group will eat pan-fried chicken for dinner at Al’s Chickenette which features 1949 decor. The group will stay overnight at The Baymont Inn. History faculty member and author/storyteller John Sharp will tell Kansas and Hesston College stories as the group travels.
On Friday, June 4, activities include a tour of St. Joseph Church in Damar, a Romanesque-style church that stands as a sentinel guarding the Kansas high plains. Later the group will enjoy coffee, juice and rolls while a National Park Service Ranger provides a presentation on Nicodemus, the oldest surviving pioneer town west of the Mississippi to be established by African Americans.
Other stops include an antique car and auto sign and light collection at Hill City’s Money Chevrolet and then on to Moreland where tour participants will view a 1950s comic book collection and a relief sculpture of the Minium Quarry Fossil dig. The Prairie Junction of Moreland will provide a light lunch and offer antiques for viewing.
The trip continues with a presentation and tour of the Cottonwood Ranch Kansas State Historic Site which is modeled after Yorkshire, England, sheep ranch homesteads. Participants will also have a chance to see the largest eastern Cottonwood tree in the state of Kansas. A stop will be made at the Seven 2 Bar Ranch to learn the story of the Penokee Stone Man imbedded in the Kansas high plains.
The group returns to Nicodemus for a tour led by descendent Angela Bates and a western-style barbecue meal by Ernestine’s. Hesston College artist-in-residence Tony Brown will sing a mini concert of spirituals in the Nicodemus Town Hall. The public is invited to attend the 7 p.m. free concert.
Cost for the Explore Kansas! tour is $105 per person and is limited to the first 50 persons to register, with a deadline of Friday, May 21. “Only a few seats remain,” Stutzman said.
For more information, contact Dallas Stutzman, toll-free at 866-437-7866 (or 866-HESSTON), or alumni@hesston.edu. An event reminder will be sent to registrants prior to departure.