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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
AAK_Ep35
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Sydney Collins: [00:00:00] Now, I can't remember of it. Cimarron, the Cimarron National Grassland. Mm-hmm. Is, is what it is. Or sorry, SI. Cimarron National. Yeah, Cimarron National Grassland.
Gus Applequist: I just can't always remember the name. Cimarron. I just Cimarron. It's like cinnamon. Cinnamon ci cimarron sim. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: It is a tough name. I wonder where it comes from.
Maybe we should look that up someday.
Gus Applequist: It's like there should be a podcast that like explains these things, how things are
Sydney Collins: named.
Gus Applequist: No, like explain in general Kansas in Oh, explain.
Sydney Collins: Oh yeah, we could do that. That's this podcast, Sydnee, but I'm, we're on it.
Gus Applequist: Welcome to Ask of [00:01:00] Kansan,
Sydney Collins: a podcast where we're amplifying, connecting and uncovering stories across Kansas.
Meet Beccy Tanner: A Seasoned Journalist
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Gus Applequist: Today our guest on Ask A Kansan, uh, was Beccy Tanner. Is Beccy Tanner. And Beccy is a, uh, a seasoned journalist and, uh, she has covered the bulk of the state, the whole state really for the last 40 years,
Sydney Collins: quite literally has uncovered, amplified and connected Kansas through her career.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, and, and in our conversation today, we just hit the highlights, uh, of, of what Beccy's done. Very much so. and hear a little bit. Of her passion, which she has a huge amount of passion for this state and its people. Without any further ado, hope you enjoy this episode with Beccy Tanner.
Hello. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. Come on in.
Sydney Collins: Do I get to come over here?
Gus Applequist: You, you do. Yeah. We'd love it if you would. It's the
Sydney Collins: hot seat. Yeah. Well, they're all the same seat. Oh, I love you. But that one's just warmer. This one's electrify. Yes.
Gus Applequist: I love the colors. That looks, so thank you. Okay,
Sydney Collins: here we [00:02:00] are.
Gus Applequist: Well, thanks for coming on ASCA Kansan today.
Sydney Collins: I'm honored.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. I'm Gus.
Sydney Collins: I'm Sydnee. Okay. I'm really Beccy Tanner. So,
Gus Applequist: yeah. Well, it's, it's really great to have you today. Um, and it's our honor to have you, um, could you start by just introducing yourself for our audience?
Beccy Tanner: Sure. I'm Beccy Tanner. I'm a freelance reporter, journalist. I've been involved in a lot of things.
I was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2023. And the cool thing about that was that I was inducted with about 23 other women. Oh, wow. And it was the first time, up until then, there were only a handful of women in the Hall of Fame. And so it was really neat. People I'd admired all my life to just be with them.
Wow. Okay. That was a highlight. No, that's great. Most days are not that exciting.
Beccy's Kansas Roots and Early Life
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Gus Applequist: could you, [00:03:00] could you tell us just a little bit about your background in Kansas? Like, were you born here?
Beccy Tanner: I was actually at the St. Joseph Hospital. I stipulate that difference mm-hmm. In, in as opposed to the Larned State Hospital.
Yeah. Um, but I grew up on a farm and I'm a fourth generation Kansan, and. To me, that's kind of the center of everything of, of just having those experiences and then going into journalism. That was kind of fun.
Gus Applequist: Well, I, in my, uh, research, I, I saw the, um, you're from near Radium, Kansas, is that right? Yes. How does Radium get its name?
That's, uh, pretty specific. That is
Beccy Tanner: a cool story because it was like back in 1910 or so, maybe a little earlier, but. The town needed a name and they couldn't think of anything, [00:04:00] and so the post office suggested radium. Because Madam Curie had just discovered radium. Oh. And they liked the idea of it being a bright substance, and so that may or may not kill you, depending on your exposure.
That may be a good thing, but, but I'm very proud of that. Yeah. And so there you are. Yes. Yeah, and I mean, today the town has maybe 30 residents or so, but mm-hmm. My grandfather in 1921, he was the superintendent and he helped consolidate the schools around radium. Oh
Gus Applequist: wow.
Beccy Tanner: And radium, uh, was one of the first, I think they were like half a dozen schools that were consolidated about that same time in Kansas.
And Radium was the first to have a hot lunch school program. I think that's kind of cool. That is cool.
Gus Applequist: [00:05:00] So then the, the closest town besides Radium, what was that? St. John?
Beccy Tanner: It was actually Seward.
Gus Applequist: Seward, okay. Gotcha.
Beccy Tanner: And Seward is best known for Mom's Barn Grill, and they have these t-shirts that say, where in the, where in the hell is Seward, Kansas, Stafford County.
And it's just, no, St. John was. Oh gosh. Um, from our farm, it was about 11 miles. Oh, wow. And so that's where I went to school.
Gus Applequist: Okay. So that's how you got connected with St. John Richard. It's true. Okay. It
Beccy Tanner: is true.
Gus Applequist: okay.
The Unique Charm of Kansas
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Gus Applequist: So I'm, I'm gonna, we're gonna, I'm gonna come back to kind of how you found journalism, but I'm gonna jump forward in time and ask you a deep question.
I usually save deep questions for the end, but I just can't,
Beccy Tanner: oh, I love deep questions. Yeah, I know.
Gus Applequist: When you look at a map of Kansas, about 75 miles of our border is formed by natural phenomenon, the Missouri River, of course. But the other 1100 miles are [00:06:00] straight line borders that humans made up.
Right?
Sydney Collins: True.
Gus Applequist: So the premise of this podcast and much of the work you've done in your career rests on the idea that the distinctiveness of the people living within that seemingly arbitrary. Rectangle is worthy of being focused on. So what is it about this place and these people that make it and us a good subject for writing?
Beccy Tanner: Hmm. I love that question. I don't think it is a coincidence that our state song is home on the range.
Gus Applequist: Hmm.
Beccy Tanner: I don't think it is a coincidence that the one thing Dorothy is trying to do in the Wizard of Oz. is Go home. I don't think it's a coincidence that we have a town in Kansas named home. I think for many of us, this is home.
And I think the important thing is to try and find those diverse stories because we all have a way of [00:07:00] getting home and they're all different ways. and that's, I think, is the element of what we do, if that makes sense.
Sydney Collins: We just had a conversation a couple episodes ago where our guests kind of turned the tables on us and she goes, well, how do you know if you're a transplant?
Like. When you're a Kansan and my response is when you feel like you're home. And so it's true. It's kind of full circle.
Beccy Tanner: Yeah. Well, and at the Eagle, the Wichita Eagle where I used to work for 35 years, the thing, we would joke about it, but if you'd been here 15 minutes, you were a Kansan. And you know, it, it doesn't matter how long you've been here, if you can identify with this as home.
You're home.
Gus Applequist: I don't know that every state could say that, so.
Beccy Tanner: Well, it's true. Mm-hmm. I, we have so many things that are fascinating that are different than other [00:08:00] states, and to me that's the challenge of helping tell those stories.
Beccy's Journalism Journey
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Gus Applequist: So how did you discover journalism?
Beccy Tanner: Um, I knew when I was five years old, I wanted to be a journalist.
We had a school trip to the St. John News and I just thought that was the coolest thing. Plus my grandfather was always writing letters to the newspaper and I figured, well, that's important.
Gus Applequist: What was it about that trip to the, to the office?
Beccy Tanner: We got to see the printing press.
Gus Applequist: Hmm.
Beccy Tanner: There you go. So it is
Gus Applequist: literally watching the news be printed.
Beccy Tanner: Yes. Yes.
Gus Applequist: Gotcha. Wow. Cool.
Beccy Tanner: And I mean, the thing about journalism now and always has been is we will always have a need to tell stories.
We will always have people who need to know the information and how we do that changes and it's changed dramatically, [00:09:00] but. We'll still be around.
Gus Applequist: did you start your career at the, the Wichita Eagle?
Beccy Tanner: I did not. Great Bend Tribune. And then I went to the Sterling Bulletin, the Hutch News, the Salina Journal, and then the Wichita Eagle. I, started out at the Eagle as their bureau chief in Western Kansas in Dodge City. It was in the Lora Locke Hotel in Dodge, and I loved it because it was just like in Gunsmoke where they,
Sydney Collins: I like any sentence that starts,
it's just like in Gunsmoke.
No,
Beccy Tanner: no. I mean, it was this wonderful, Hotel that was built like in the 1920s or so. Mm-hmm. So I can't remember exactly, but the thing about it that was so cool was it had these doors that were just like saloon doors that you'd walk through. That's an entrance. Yeah, it was an entrance. Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: Wow. so [00:10:00] you're a western Kansas Bureau chief, and then at some point you kind of just were given free reign to focus on Kansas.
Is that true or?
Beccy Tanner: It's always been true, let's face it, whether they wanted it or not, with lots, lots of guidance. Um, but no, after about two years, um, I was moved into the main newsroom and that was one I loved most. I, I was not. I didn't like going to crime scenes. Mm-hmm. That was hard for me to do that kind of news, but oh my heavens, let me tell a story about Kansas and I just had fun.
the thing of it is I got to work with such talented people and that, I mean, you know, that was the thing that was. The best of of all worlds was to work with, with photographers that are nationally known now, you [00:11:00] know?
Gus Applequist: You know, reading through. The different things you've done in your career and continue to do now in retirement?
Um, semi um, yeah, it's clear that, that I'm not gonna have time to hit on everything that you've done 'cause there's just so much. so I, I have to, I kind of have to pick my questions carefully here. and I think I know the answer to this, but I still wanna ask it. Did you always love Kansas?
Beccy Tanner: Yeah. Yeah. I was a geeky kid.
I would always buy these true West magazines, you know, and like as a kid, I'd save my money and, and buy those. And so I would spout these things. Just trivia. I'm still doing it.
Gus Applequist: Uh, so, so hit us with some, some random Kansas trivia.
Beccy Tanner: Um, if, well, I just recently did one. I'm doing, once a week I do a trivia for the Stafford County.
Economic development, but I just thought it was a kick. Um, in the [00:12:00] 1890s. do you know how dating went about?
Sydney Collins: Oh, um, you were being courted basically. Yes. And you had to have chaperones basically the entire time. Right?
Beccy Tanner: Well, that is true. That's very true. But one of the big things was onion sociables. And that is where a woman, well, there'd be like six women that would line up.
One of them would take a bite out of an onion, and the men who were courting them had to figure out, they could look at the onion to see the circumference of the bite and all that kind of stuff. And then they would guess who bit the onion. And if the man guessed right, he would. Get to kiss the other women, but if he guessed wrong, he had to kiss the woman.
The onion. The onion breath.
Gus Applequist: That is wild.
Beccy Tanner: Isn't that funny? That is not where I thought that was going. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow. [00:13:00] Interesting. So.
Did somebody, and
Beccy Tanner: as I pointed out, thank heavens in 2025, we can just swipe right. You know,
Sydney Collins: we've,
Beccy Tanner: we've
Sydney Collins: simplified it a little bit, a little.
Gus Applequist: Wow. Wow. That's crazy.
Beccy Tanner: But I mean, there's so many, many cool things.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Beccy Tanner: And I always get kind of geeky whenever I find really good ones, so. Mm-hmm. You know?
Gus Applequist: Oh my goodness.
So, A lot of your work, some people may label as, um, like the feelgood pieces.
Beccy Tanner: They are, I'll admit that.
Gus Applequist: But, but feelgood pieces are still important, obviously. And, and there have been pieces that you've done that have caused real world change. It's not like it just kinda goes out there and makes people feel happy.
Beccy Tanner: Yeah. I think it's important that people feel something.
Gus Applequist: Hmm.
Beccy Tanner: That may be all different kinds of emotions, but I think [00:14:00] that's the things you will remember the longest. And I also used to teach, J Price was so sweet. Um, at Wichita State University I got to teach, uh, a few years with Kansas history and one of the things I always told people was this.
That after all these years of interviewing people, I've interviewed thousands of people. But what you remember is the passion. Hmm. You remember the passion and the faces of the people. You may not remember their names. You may not remember the quotes, but you remember that moment.
Gus Applequist: as a, as a journalist, you have this ability to concentrate. Public's attention on things.
Impactful Stories and Real-World Change
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Gus Applequist: you know, did you, there's, there's a couple instances in, in your career where you, you caused change, like, uh, with the home, the range cabin, and then the bridge down in [00:15:00] Wichita.
Beccy Tanner: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: So could you talk about, like, did you expect the public to have a reaction to those pieces or,
Beccy Tanner: no.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Beccy Tanner: But I like the home on the range cabin. okay. My boss, Tom Schein, he'll probably be embarrassed when I tell this story, but after I got through sleeping at the home on the range cabin, I was the first person in, I think it was 126 years, my to sleep in the cabin.
Gus Applequist: This is the cabin where it was written
Beccy Tanner: in Smith County. Yes. And um, Tom, it was such a success he thought. What would be really funny is if I did a column where I stayed at historic places and we could call it Sleeping Around with Beccy Tanner. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. No, no. And there's a part of me, I would still like to do that.
Maybe we call it something different.
Gus Applequist: So, so what happened after you, uh, slept [00:16:00] there at that cabin?
Beccy Tanner: Well, the first time I went out there, it was on the winter solstice and I think that it was going to get down to like 17 degrees.
Gus Applequist: Oh man.
Beccy Tanner: And when I first got there, it was like around three in the afternoon, you could see your breath and I thought, you know, it would be so cool if I.
I did my Christmas cards then, so I was in these old woman handwriting because it was cold and you know what happens to your hands when it gets cold?
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Beccy Tanner: Mm-hmm. I was writing the stuff out again. You could see your breath around nine o'clock. I was beginning to think. What if I become the story? What if I freeze it out?
Gus Applequist: Thank goodness that didn't happen.
Beccy Tanner: It didn't because I called Eldine Holis, who he was the caretaker of the cabin, and I said, you know, I just can't do it. I just, and I had gone out there because I wanted to see, hear, [00:17:00] and feel the things that Brewster Higley did, and you can do all of that. And I actually slept there twice.
I did sleep a little bit that night, but I went back when it was in the springtime and it was a lot easier because I'm not a camper. And, but it was, it was so fun doing that and to wake up and. The door, the doorway, there were deer prints at the door. There were, I mean, and it's Beaver Creek that runs right by the cabin.
And so to hear the coyotes and owls, uh, those kind of things were, to me, that just brought the words to life. and. As I was coming back, uh, driving back to Wichita from the cabin, one of the things that struck me was [00:18:00] how much the cabin needed help. That it was falling, it was falling down. It was, you know, it needed attention.
And it was largely because of Orrin Friesen. Um, who was at the, a, a radio announcer in Wichita, but also with the, the Prairie Wranglers. Um, I think that's the name. I'm going blank. But, um, he was instrumental in helping get fundraisers going. and then Ken Spurgeon, uh, the filmmaker, and I hope you guys have both of those guys on sometime, but.
Ken Spurgeon, did a movie called Home on the Range, and it told that story and how Kansas nearly lost that song and how we fought to have that song as our state song. And [00:19:00] it's now one of the most beloved folk songs in the world. And or Friesen will tell you the story of how. when they went over to China, they started to sing that song and the people sung it back in China.
I mean, it's such a great story. Wow. and that we nearly lost it. so that was the people, the readers at the Eagle we're so generous and they helped save that Gragg Kite who is with the. Wichita, Sedgwick County Historic Preservation. they, he helped do grants to, uh, write grants to, to get the money to save the cabin.
So it was really this team effort. And the only thing I did was just, you know, create some awareness on it. Everybody else did huge stuff.
I went back when it had been restored and when, and so I know I sound [00:20:00] like a wimp and I am, but when I stayed there the first time, there were these huge holes in the walls and, and that kind of thing. So on a winter's night. That wind just came right through. Mm. And again, I didn't wanna become the story.
Gotcha.
Gus Applequist: you have a, one of your favorite words is the word, and I'm gonna say this wrong top, Ophelia. Is that right?
Beccy Tanner: Yes. How'd you know that?
Gus Applequist: Good question. Tell me about top Paraphilia.
Beccy Tanner: Oh, well, it's the love of the land. And it's a combination of, of two words, topa, which means the land, and then philia, [00:21:00] which is like Philadelphia, but it means the love of, and.
You can find that anywhere in Kansas that, that feeling, that love of the land, you just have to look out, do the back roads, you'll find it.
Retirement and Return to St. John
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Gus Applequist: So you retired, uh, from the Wichita Eagle a few years ago?
Beccy Tanner: 2018. 2018. I was actually, Part of the streamlining process where hundreds, thousands of journalists were laid off all over the nation and um.
I just wanna keep going. Yeah. And because I love what I do. And that's, that's kind of where that all came about.
Gus Applequist: And then you made the decision to move from Wichita, I assume, back to St. John. St. John.
Beccy Tanner: Mm-hmm. Yeah, because that's where I came from.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. And, and yeah, just describe like that thought process and, and why you made that move.
Beccy Tanner: Well, I wanted to go home. [00:22:00] I have loved every town I've lived in. I truly have, but. I wanted to go home and to see people I've known since I was a little kid. All those kind of things. They had the audacity to get older, and that surprised me. But I'm trying to connect faces now and all those kind of things.
But, wanted to feel like I belonged. Hmm. And I do.
Gus Applequist: Hmm. did St. John feel like it had changed?
Beccy Tanner: Very much so. It was not the Mayberry RFD that I remembered. Um, and I'd say that jokingly, but it is a wonderful community. But there are times when, when it's hard finding volunteers, there's times when it's just as a small town having the resources to do things.
And so I wanted to be [00:23:00] involved.
Gus Applequist: I live in Salina and so I'm not as connected with the small towns as, as many are. Um, but I, I think that's common, right? Mm-hmm. Across small towns in Kansas. Absolutely. There's always a need for more people to be involved and mm-hmm. And help with things. so you certainly got involved.
Preserving Kansas History
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Gus Applequist: Could you share some of the different things that you've been doing?
Beccy Tanner: Sure. Um, I'm a board member at the St. John Homecoming Hall and Museum, also known as the Lucille M Hall Museum. we've been, at that point when I first stepped on the board. We were only open a half a day a year, and that was during the town Jubilee.
And so we have gradually been changing that and now we're open at least two days a week. And, and you know, again, finding people who will help volunteer and, and be a part of the process has, has been ACEC challenge. But [00:24:00] we've done a lot with, with exhibits and, photo displays, things like that. Um, one of the things that Stafford County has is, the Stafford County Historical Museum.
several years ago, the WR Gray Family donated 30,000. Glass negatives, and it's one of the largest collections of glass negatives in the nation. And right now those are carefully preserved in a bank vault in Stafford. But what we would like to do is make room and start revolving photo displays of these glass negatives.
And one of the things. I've been really blessed is Bo Rader is a good friend of mine and we've been, he's a photographer, a nationally known photographer, and we've [00:25:00] been friends since our collegiate days at K State back in the 1970s. And he's very much into glass negative photography now. And the first project he did for us was, um.
Featuring the ex duster families, um, the descendants of the African Americans who homesteaded in Stafford County in the late 1870s, early 1880s. And, uh, a woman by the name of Alice McMillan. helped track down those descendants and has become good friends with them and they were invited back to St.
John and we still stay in touch, but of, of just giving a voice to those homesteaders who did not have any. Real record or, [00:26:00] or history in Stafford County because those stories were simply not preserved as other prominent families were. we've also done a project on Native Americans because we had no written history of the na.
We knew Native Americans were in the area, but we did not know, Who they were or any of that. So that was another project we did,
Gus Applequist: and a, and a documentary came out of that one. Mm-hmm.
Beccy Tanner: 13 Videos, a documentary that's an hour and a half long and, um, 15 Portraits of the Glass negative because we wanted that to be in keeping with what we already had.
Mm-hmm. And oh, the photos are phenomenal.
Gus Applequist: what would you say are your biggest takeaways from, from that particular project? Um, capturing the history of Native Americans.
Beccy Tanner: We now have a written history Yeah. Of, [00:27:00] of, uh, the Native Americans who were in Stafford County before they were forcibly removed.
Mm-hmm. in the 1870s, that's when the majority of of Native Americans were removed, from Kansas. The takeaway, I, and I just finished writing an article for Kansas Magazine on this, but the truth of it is they never left. They're still here, and in some form or another through reservations and, and the people who stayed in Kansas, native Americans still have a wonderful presence in the state of Kansas.
The other thing that's important is that despite all the things that happened to them during the cultural conflicts of the 19th century, some of them still came back to Kansas during World War ii, when plane, manufacturing [00:28:00] plants were wanting people. Uh, all eligible people to come and work in the plants, and not only through the state of Kansas, but, but the surrounding states, they needed employees and so many of them came back and, and strong communities were formed because of that.
Gus Applequist: Something I feel like I've heard growing up and, and still. Think about and talk about today is, is that there's a certain spirit of Kansas that exists. and I, you know, there's some historical figures that often get brought up like John Brown and others, you know, that, that seem to typify that like really, independent spirit.
Given the experience you've had covering this state, how would you define the spirit of Kansas?
Beccy Tanner: I think the historian Craig Minor. Did, um, some wonderful, analogies of that. Um, [00:29:00] but he would say that, that, um, Kansans are hardworking. They have a sense of humor. of resilience. There are so many things that you can say, but I think those are the key elements there.
For the most part, they have bullshit detectors. They can tell. Can we say that We can. Now
Gus Applequist: You've said it, so go for it.
Beccy Tanner: Or the substance that comes out of the rear end of a male bovine with that work that.
The byproduct. Oh my goodness. Hmm. But, but they can, they can tell if you're not shooting straight.
Gus Applequist: Hmm. The word authenticity comes to mind. Very
Beccy Tanner: much so.
Sydney Collins: I do have a question for you. So I wanna go back to kind of the journalism aspect. just 'cause you've been in it [00:30:00] for so long and have such an expertise in it. Do you feel journalism has changed through the years?
Exploring Historical Newspapers
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Sydney Collins: Yes. Yeah, I spent, the reason I ask that is I've spent a good chunk in the morning combing through newspapers.com.
It's my favorite place to go when we're looking for content. Reading articles from, you know, early 19 hundreds, like 1920s, 1930s, first articles. Now it's vastly different where some of 'em were very straight to the point, so and so came to so-and-so's house and they did this. That key. Yes. And a good time was had by all exactly.
And to where that is. You don't even get stories like that anymore.
The Changing Landscape of Journalism
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Sydney Collins: No.
Beccy Tanner: You know, I think. The journalists now, they are doing such hard work and such good work. But when I was at, when I first started at the Eagle, we had like 150 people in the newsroom. They now have, I think it's [00:31:00] closer to 10. Wow. And when you're looking at covering the state of Kansas mm-hmm.
That's a lot of territory. And a lot of times they can't cover the state of Kansas because. Things are happening, you know, so quickly, close to home. I admire them. I admire that they are, are doing such great work. Um, I mean that's, that's just it. We, at least when I was in the heyday of, of, of at, in the eighties and nineties of that was before the layoffs really started.
Oh my heavens. You could do such incredible things at that point because we had the manpower and women power.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:00]
Advice for Aspiring Storytellers
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Gus Applequist: As we, as you know, we're storytellers too and we're, we're capturing stories like yours, what advice would you give us as we go forth and try to find more stories to tell?
Beccy Tanner: Honey, you do not need advice. You're doing it. You're
Gus Applequist: doing it. Oh, well, well, thank you. But maybe we, you know, I, I wanna, I wanna learn from you.
Beccy Tanner: Just letting people tell their stories. That is all we have to do. And not to get ahead, not get ahead of that. Just let them. I mean, that was when we, thing that I really tried to stress when we did the, the first People of Kansas project, was to let the [00:33:00] people tell the stories because.
Their stories had been misinterpreted so many times before and it was important that their own words be heard and, and that was the thing I, I am so proud of that project. It was a humanities Kansas project. We would not have been able to do it without that grant, but to do it and to have the people involved, like one of the women.
one of her ancestors, uh, was related to Geronimo. you know, we had so many who were the sons and daughters of chiefs and, and that kind of thing, elders and, and holy people. And so it was wonderful. To let them tell those stories, and Bo has such a wonderful way of capturing. [00:34:00] Their faces and portraits that it's just beautiful.
Gus Applequist: Well, I, I think I heard that we may, you may have some photos to share with us that we can I do post. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah, that'll be great for the audience to be able to see that.
Teaching Kansas History
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Gus Applequist: So, so you spent some time teaching at Wichita State. You referenced earlier and, and I gather you're teaching Kansas history, is that correct?
Yes. Yeah. And was that, and
Beccy Tanner: doing bus trips on the back roads. I mean, it was fun.
Gus Applequist: Was that with students or with members of public, or anybody?
Beccy Tanner: Anybody that wanted to, to go through community education, um, at Wichita State University. So that was fun.
Gus Applequist: How, yeah. What, what was it like being in the classroom and, and teaching?
You know, you, it's a very different communication form than through and through journalism. It
Beccy Tanner: is, but. I cheated a little bit, and that is, I had people who were guest speakers and because again, it's that passion and to [00:35:00] have people, like Jim Gray, um, you know, who's the director of the Genesee Museum and, and to have Ken Spurgeon and Orrin Friesen and all of those people.
tell their own stories. To me, that's, that's the passion of Kansas history.
Gus Applequist: Hmm. my parents and, and through them now me, we, we believe in the liberal arts and their value. Mm-hmm. And, and Kansas history is one of those things that I imagine when, when parents or students are trying to figure out what electives they're gonna go through, and I, some, some schools require that, um, obviously, but give, give me a good impassioned speech, uh, that we can, we can spread that message of why, why a Kansas history class is important.
Beccy Tanner: I think more importantly, it's important for the teacher who teaches Kansas history to feel passionate about it because if they are not passionate, then the [00:36:00] students will never be passionate or to at least have parents that care about the history. one of the hardest things is convincing people that it's important that we tell these stories.
it's important that we don't leave people out. and so that's, that's why I think that's the biggest defense there. but there are so many cool stories and, you know, Deb Goodrich, who is at Fort Wallace, an incredible historian. She talks about how Kansas. Really came into statehood just as the Civil War was starting.
And you know, Ken Spurgeon also talks about that, that really Kansas grew up with the United States and, and we had to because of the war. I think that's kind of cool. [00:37:00] And the fact that the Kansas History Museum is now open and Yeah. Oh my heavens. I can't wait to get there.
Kansas Leadership and Community Stories
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Gus Applequist: you, you've done some work with the Kansas Leadership Center.
Mm-hmm. Could you talk about that a little bit?
Beccy Tanner: I love the feeling of newsroom and, you know, COVID changed so much, but it's fun to just do the meetings through Zoom and all of that and to get the, the really creative ideas that people have and, and that's just, I mean, some of the stories I've told through that, through the journal.
Have been about the ex dusters and, and coming to Stafford County and, the Genesee Museum and its UFOs, all of those things. Um, there's been a wide variety and quite frankly, one of the top, of red stories was Big Ed Steakhouse in Bird City. So that's worth going to.
Gus Applequist: This may be a little bit of my own naive naivete, but, How [00:38:00] does that connect with, with leadership at, at Kansas Leadership Center? Like, was there, was there an element of your story that Absolutely. About leadership?
Beccy Tanner: Absolutely. How does the community come along with that? How does, um, how do you go with an idea?
Kansas Grassroots Art
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Beccy Tanner: I mean, Mullen, you know, with all the grass arts and, and Lucas, how do communities support that?
And, and you know, quite frankly, Kansas. When it comes to grassroots art, we rank third in the nation, because, uh, we have folks. Tend to be semi-retired with a little time on their hand and they, they begin. That's dangerous thing with the kids. They, they start taking up their own genre of art. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Do you have a favorite of those artists in Kansas? The, the Garden of Eden or the, the guy down, down south by Pratt? Is that the right place? Mullen. Mullen, yeah.
Beccy Tanner: I love Lucas and I love all the different [00:39:00] artists that, that come from that, that's just, Erica Nelson is just wonderful and oh my heavens of things that she's been able to do.
We have, we have had her on the podcast. She is incredible.
Gus Applequist: Love, love her, and all she does.
Kansas Bus Trips and Hidden Gems
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Gus Applequist: So you mentioned, um, these bus trips. and you said you take, you took people on the back roads. Uh, not, you didn't go to, I'm, I'm assuming you came from Wichita, uh, on those bus trips from Wichita State. Um, but you, you didn't go to the Cosmos sphere. Not I love the Cosmos sphere, but you were No, you did, did you?
Okay.
Beccy Tanner: We, we've you
Gus Applequist: hit all sorts of
Beccy Tanner: things. Yeah. And I, it's not that I'm doing them that much anymore. Sure. And, and, and part of that is because I'm getting more involved in other stuff. So Good for you.
Gus Applequist: By getting off the beaten track and exploring those dirt roads out in the middle. What did you find and, and what did you show people?
Beccy Tanner: One of the places my absolute [00:40:00] favorite places is Vera, national Wildlife Refuge. For me, just being able to show people. On that day that we went, they got to see hooping cranes, which a lot of them had never seen before. sock coyotes, all those kind of things. You never know what you're gonna see. and to experience sitting down, in the community center at Hudson and having a.
Buffet from the Wheatland Cafe and, and getting to, for people to just talk with people. We've been to Lucas, we've, we've been to Southeast Kansas to Big Brutus and all over, and I think people love the chance. To get in a bus, like, you know, college kids, you, you know, they're 8 70, 80, 60. What it doesn't, doesn't matter, but just feeling like a whole bunch of friends are traveling [00:41:00] down the road together.
You don't have to worry about anything. And, and just seeing the sights and sounds and learning a little more about the state, that's, that's fun.
Gus Applequist: We had, uh, Rex Buchanan on Yes. Love him. And yeah, Rex Rex, uh, does a similar thing, I think with the geological tours he
Beccy Tanner: does. Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: he was telling us how when, when, when people from outta state come, they don't have a lot of preconceptions about what Kansas is.
A lot of kans have a lot of preconceptions. It's true. Candace is, you seem like the right person to give us a Kansas pep talk.
Beccy Tanner: One of the things that struck me when I was in the bureau out at Dodge City was when European travelers came. They were so struck by hearing the wind and experiencing the wind in Kansas, and for someone who grew up on a farm, [00:42:00] that was pretty ordinary. But to have people whose socks were knocked off by just being out in the middle of the prairie, hearing the wind and feeling it, I thought that was the coolest thing.
And you see that, I mean, when I was growing up. People were ho-hum about Kansas Native Kansans. There wasn't anything in Kansas. A large part was that people had not really been made aware of it. Hmm. And it took people like Marcy Pinner and the Kansas Sampler Foundation. You have all these people now, the Rex Buchanans, all these people.
Saying, you know, this is really a cool place. These are my favorite places to go. When I need, when I need a little bit of peace, this is where I go. And I think people want things that they [00:43:00] don't have to travel far, but they'll still experience that. Hmm. And anywhere in the state you can do that,
Gus Applequist: This episode has been great. 'cause you've, you've pointed at a lot of different folks, that, that you've worked with and that you know of, um, that and many of whom we've had as guests. I think you've had a lot of,
Beccy Tanner: have you had Jim Gray yet? No. No. Oh, you guys have got to get him in here. Okay.
Gus Applequist: We will. Or we will do our best.
Beccy Tanner: And Ken Spurgeon. Yeah. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Ken has come up and We'll, we need to invite him on for sure. Um, but.
Beccy Tanner: Deb Goodrich.
Gus Applequist: I don't think she's on the list. She's on the list. She's on the list
Beccy Tanner: because she's just come out with a book that would be good to talk about.
Gus Applequist: Oh, wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful. So, you know, thank you for that, for being a, uh, a place of connection for people that are interested in this topic in Kansas.
Oh,
Beccy Tanner: the thing is, people get real excited about it. Mm-hmm. They really do.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Beccy Tanner: And they want to feel something
Gus Applequist: they
Beccy Tanner: do. And I just think [00:44:00] they can. We can do that.
Gus Applequist: Well, thank you so much. You bet, uh, for coming on the podcast today and telling us about yourself and about your work and about Kansas.
Beccy Tanner: It's been an honor.
Gus Applequist: Well, we hope you enjoyed that interview with Beccy. It was really fun to, uh, talk to somebody who's. Honestly got such a deep well of knowledge about the state. Mm-hmm. It's always a little bit intimidating to me if I'm being honest. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Because you're like, do I really know Kansas all that well. We have this whole podcast around Kansas, and then [00:45:00] you interview someone who's.
Quite literally gone corner to corner. Yeah. And you're like, I don't know anything.
Gus Applequist: But, but that's why we're here is is, uh, the, the curious part of what we do. And, and yeah, Beccy was a great person to be a vehicle for that.
Sydney Collins: And if you want more information, she does have books. Um, she's written two books.
We'll link those, um, in the description if you'd like to find those.
Gus Applequist: Well, do you have something for us or? I do. Okay.
Fun with Historical Newspaper Clippings
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Sydney Collins: So because of Beccy. We are gonna do sort of a wear in the rectangle Beccy version.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: So I went on newspapers.com, I found newspaper articles from different counties.
Gus Applequist: Oh.
Sydney Collins: And they're sort of Christmas themed.
Gus Applequist: Oh.
Sydney Collins: So we're gonna read the article and there are little hints in each article. And you have to guess the county.
Gus Applequist: Can I go get my, we're in the rectangle. Rectangle. Go get
Sydney Collins: your go. Get your rectangle. Rectangle.
Can get my rectangle. Okay, so I
Gus Applequist: have my little cheat, okay. Sheet thing. [00:46:00]
Sydney Collins: All right. So first one. So don't pay attention to what's on the, uh. Pages, the article first, and this other part is just to give context. So, okay. January 3rd, 1918, A Christmas mishap to Frank Wagner of Lebanon.
Soldier Boy has got. Got him in bad with the military authorities. He was home on leave from Camp Ston, Funston, and went hunting and oh, and went hunting, crawling through a fence. He accidentally discharged the shotgun. He carried. Oh no. And the charge struck one of his feet. His leave was only for Kansas, and the accident occurred in Nebraska and the big.
Uh, I think that's bugs. The big bugs refused. To accept his explanation, ah, that the shooting was not intentional. [00:47:00] It is reported that Frank Sulked a good deal about going to the Army. And this is against him too. So I'm assuming Frank was drafted. Mm-hmm. And the reason I say that is, so that's where this portion comes through.
'cause this was January, 1918, so we were like deep into World War I. Yep. The draft ton, the draft half draft happened. Mm-hmm. So. Lebanon. That's your, that's your big key there. Yeah. That's it. Of where do you think this newspaper, um, what county,
Gus Applequist: uh,
Sydney Collins: was this need, this is a challenge newspaper.
Gus Applequist: I've obviously heard of Lebanon, but putting it on the map, that is hard.
Um, well I'm, I'm fairly cnce up near the Nebraska border. Um. I'm just not sure which direction to go. I'm gonna say Phillips County
Sydney Collins: close. You Smith. Oh.
Gus Applequist: Even thought about Smith.
Sydney Collins: Scroll down a little [00:48:00] bit more. There you go. Smith County. Okay, cool. So you were close. Yeah. Up there. So poor Frank.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I guess we don't really know, do we? We don't
Sydney Collins: really know what happened.
Gus Applequist: Hopefully he didn't have to go to war. Um, but yeah.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. Crazy. All right, next story. This is fun.
Gus Applequist: I like this.
Sydney Collins: This one's a little bit more lighthearted. So these are dear Santas. These are letters from elementary school kids that were posted in the newspaper, and this is not 2012, but 1912.
A little
Gus Applequist: uhhuh
Sydney Collins: finger. Finger myself there, but, all right, Garfield School. Dear Santa Claus, I would like to have a drum of football, an air gun, and an airship. And an automobile and a ball, and the bat
Gus Applequist: and a thesaurus.
Sydney Collins: Goodbye. Uh, goodbye Santa Claus. So again, these are grade school. This kid's probably like seven.
He the use of, um, [00:49:00] I will say air gun, super popular. Like I read a lot of these. Every single kid wanted an air gun. I'm assuming that's like a BB gun or an airsoft gun type of deal.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, I don't, I
Sydney Collins: dunno, assuming, but I don't know.
Gus Applequist: I wonder like 1912?
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Sydney Collins: Um, another kid at Garfield School. Um, I would like to have a sled.
I would like to have a football. I would like to have a air gun wheelbarrow, which is interesting. Tools, shovel, spade, and auto. That's all your boy teddy ring.
Gus Applequist: Your boy, your boy teddy ring. He's a good drop. Yeah. And Otto, is he asking for a car
Sydney Collins: maybe.
Gus Applequist: Just a car. Just throw a car there. Just a car.
Sydney Collins: It'd be like a go-kart or a little pedal car.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Wow.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Okay. Garfield School is kinda your only,
Gus Applequist: okay. And, and so I assume Garfield is the name of a town.
Sydney Collins: I couldn't [00:50:00] tell you.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Because, because I happen to know that, like at this, in this era, Garfield would've been, I mean, there could have been multiple townships across the state.
There's multiple named that, so. I'm gonna take a stab and I, I do think I've heard of a town named Garfield, and I think we've maybe even brought it up in a previous episode. I'm pretty sure. Uh, I'm gonna say Western Kansas. I'm gonna go with Gove County.
Sydney Collins: Sorry. Oh, I'm actually Concordia Kansas. That's embarrassing to us.
Gus Applequist: Okay,
Sydney Collins: so the Garfield School in Concordia, okay. Is, is what that one was. I believe so. Cloud County. Very good. Thank you. Not too far. Okay. All right. This next one is a little interesting. This is from the Daily Globe, um, Thursday, December 24th, 1891. All persons holding tickets in the raffle for a toilet case at m Nolan's Sh or No's m Noel's should be [00:51:00] at the store at eight o'clock this evening when the drawing will take place at the same store.
You will find unusual holiday attractions this evening. Now, I don't know what a toilet case is, and I really wanna know what unusual, unusual attractions are.
Gus Applequist: So is there, like, is there a part of Kansas that has a lot of toilets or something? What's my clue?
Sydney Collins: Your clue is the daily globe.
Gus Applequist: The Daily Globe
Sydney Collins: in the address.
I made this one really hard.
Gus Applequist: South fifth Street.
Sydney Collins: But you also keep in mind the date 1891.
Gus Applequist: Um, okay. So I'm gonna say more than likely the eastern half of the state, um, just 'cause there's probably. More people there. Um, so I know there's fist in Salina, um, but I'm, I don't think I've ever heard of the Daily Globe in Salina, so I'm gonna say, I'll go with Emporia, which would be, oh no, I don't know what you were
Sydney Collins: right on the Eastern side.
It's [00:52:00] Atchison.
Gus Applequist: Atchison. Okay.
Sydney Collins: You were, you were, you were good. So yeah, Atchison nice. I only found three. It was, it was a struggle to get those three. So
Gus Applequist: I love it. No, this is fun. Newspapers, um,
Sydney Collins: newspapers are always very interesting to me.
Gus Applequist: Oh, yeah. I, I've spent. A few hours in the last couple weeks. Uh, yeah.
Looking at old newspaper clippings from, from stuff in my family and uh,
Sydney Collins: that's what this originally started as. Mm-hmm. That's why you don't see my grandparents up on the shelf right now is because I took them down. 'cause I had to read what was on the back of one and I was trying to find difference and I couldn't find it.
But anyway, apparently Eugene Holden do a lot of fun stuff and that was reported in the newspapers.
Gus Applequist: My dad, uh, at, at thanksgiving this year, I, I had found an article about my dad when he was a little boy in Salina. and this would've been in the middle, late fifties. Mm. And, uh, he dressed up like a scarecrow to look like a witch.
I think it was. I'm just trying to doubt my [00:53:00] memory, but, and he, he brought it to school and they, they just like put it in the corner of the classroom and there's a whole, you know, it's a whole story.
Sydney Collins: Okay. Back up.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Okay. He did not dress as a scarecrow, dressed as a witch? No, no, no, no. He dressed up a scarecrow as a witch.
A as a witch, okay. He kinda, that did not compute for me. You use like
Gus Applequist: the scarecrow, like technique?
Sydney Collins: Technique.
Gus Applequist: To build a witch. To
Sydney Collins: build a witch. Got it. Okay. Um, and
Gus Applequist: I'm, I, there's, there's elements of this I'm forgetting, but. Some truly horrific black and white photography
Sydney Collins: of this
Gus Applequist: thing. And you know, you know how it kind of was sketchy when you tried to print that way back in the day and really horrifying.
So,
Sydney Collins: yeah. I can only imagine.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm. Well, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Ask Kansan. Uh, uh, this is, we're getting close to the end of the year, end of our mm-hmm. First season of Ask Kansan. Have a good. Let's see. This is the, we should have two more episodes, I believe, yes.
This year. Um, we're gonna do, uh, another one with a guest and then we have a special kind of [00:54:00] year end culmination episode that will be really fun. And, uh, then we'll be back for season two of as Kansan in January. So, you know, as always, if, if you would, uh, if you liked the podcast, would you tell a friend about it?
Would you leave us a review? Those are the two best ways you can support this podcast. Mm-hmm. You can also like, comment, subscribe, um, and yeah, just get out there, explore Kansas, be curious about it and tell us what you find.
Sydney Collins: There's plenty of stuff to do even when it's cold outside.
Gus Applequist: True. Lot of coziness.