Thursday, April 21, 2011

Lucas....Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas

Lucas is a farming community of about 450 people in central Kansas and it is so very Americana! A brochure got our attention about this unique little town so we decided to visit. We weren't disappointed.....such a fun time. As we made our approach to Lucas we found a very unusual welcome sign....the largest souvenir plate in the world.
...billed as the "largest souvenir plate in the world"...welcomes one to the town of Lucas.

Our first visit was to Brant's Meat Market which has been operating in the same small store since 1922. We were waited on by Donald Brant, a 3rd generation family member, who owns and operates the store. He gave us samples of everything we wanted to taste. They make much of their own meat and use their own Czech recipe for their homemade bologna which is very tasty. When it came time to pay for our meat purchase we found he did not take credit cards but he said we could send him a check in the mail....and he was serious. Being I did not have my checkbook either, we scraped enough cash together to pay him but we both left that little market in awe of such a trusting congenial man. He was a pure delight!

Brant's Meat Market in operation since 1922 by the same family.
Donald Brant...3rd generation owner...said we could mail him a check as he didn't take credit cards.

Our next stop in Lucas was the "Garden of Eden"....a page right out of Americana. Samuel Dinsmoor, a retired teacher, Civil War Veteran, farmer and politician, began building the Garden of Eden and Cabin Home in 1907 at the age of 64. For 22 years he fashioned 113 tons of cement and many tons of limestone into a unique "log" cabin and its surrounding sculptures. He opened his home and conducted tours from 1907 until a few years before his death in 1932. It is owned and operated by a group formed to preserve it, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has over 10,000 visitors annually.

Home is built of limestone logs, most of which run the cabin's length. This native "postrock" limestone traditionally was used for fence post due to lack of wood in the area.
Dinsmoor built this 40-ft tall limestone log mausoleum for himself and his first wife. He is laid to rest in his handmade, glass-topped concrete coffin.

Unfortunately for us, the Garden of Eden was still operating under winter hours and was only open on the weekends. But we were able to get photos of the outside exhibits known in the art world as outsider art and grassroots art. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the devil, an angel, and serpents are among the 150 sculptures.

Grassroots art is a term describing art made by people with no formal artistic training . . . (usually of retirement age) using ordinary materials in an extraordinary way . . . and frequently creating a whole artistic environment around themselves, effectively making themselves part of the artwork. Such work tends to be difficult to classify because it falls outside the sphere of fine art as well as that of traditional folk art in which skills and patterns may be passed from one generation to another. Lucas is home to the Grassroots Art Center which has Ed Root's Concrete Creations, and Herman Divers Pull Tab car and Motorcycle to name a few....

Quirky art throughout town........
.......a play on words...."Fork Art"

So if you find yourself in the middle of Kansas, stop and visit the neat little town of Lucas and all its quirky whimsical art.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Steamboat Arabia, Kansas City, Missouri

On September 5th, 1856 , a steamboat named “Arabia” struck a large walnut tree hidden just under the surface of the Missouri River. The steamboat sank. In 1987, David Hawley found the wreck site lying more than one-half mile from the river’s edge and buried 45 feet underground. And in 1988, Greg, along with David, their dad Bob, and two family friends , excavated the steamboat Arabia and brought it back to the surface. Arabia held 222 tons of freight, and the ship itself weighed over 222 tons. When full, it weighed about 444 tons.

Arabia had sunk on the Missouri River, just north of Kansas City, and as the corps of engineers and Mother Nature switched the river's direction, it ended up being buried in a farmer's field, rather than in the river. To raise the ship, they had to dig a huge hole and then continually pump water out as they removed things because the water was always coming back in. The low oxygen, no sunlight atmosphere did a fantastic job of preserving everything on the ship. The first thing the excavators found was in the upper spokes of the freshly exposed paddle wheel....it was an 1849 rubber shoe made by Goodyear.

The museum itself is simply amazing. So many artifacts! It's like walking back through time and into the mid-1800s. The care and effort put forth for preservation is extremely inspiring. The museum is in continuous growth as they finish the long process of preservation and add new artifacts and displays. They still have a "boatload", no pun intended, of artifacts to prepare for display. The stories about how they preserved the various artifacts are very enjoyable. You get to see part of the lab and even smell some of the perfume they found.

Chinaware
....huge display of the china ware recovered.

There are dresses, shirts, shoes and an array of clothing that look like you could wear them tomorrow. There are displays of eye glasses; ink wells; food bottles; medicines; spoons; bells; china; wrenches; guns; pocket knives; trading beads; jewelry; nails; and on and on......all perfectly preserved.

Display of buttons, perfume, jewelry, bottles, coins nestled amongst old beads....
Perfumes and writing pens from France.....
...cases and cases of well-preserved items were found and a sampling of all is displayed
....beautiful artifacts and well displayed....
Porcelain buttons on the left and trading beads on the right....

The Arabia is one of Kansas City's "treasures" and we were highly impressed with this museum. This is a story about every day guys that had a dream of digging up a sunken boat and then they had the forethought to document every step of their recovery so that now we can see their story and their findings. Their video presentations, their personal storytelling and the huge amount of well-preserved artifacts shows how determined they were in the rescue of the Arabia and then sharing it with the public. Reading about history is nothing like seeing it.