We had stopped for the night in Hayes, Kansas, on August 21, 2004. We were on our way to the old gold mining region southwest of Pikes Peak in Colorado, where we would be renting a mountain cabin for a week.
This was one of many large fields of sunflowers that we saw on our trip.
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Whenever we go on a trip, I take a lot of pictures. Before I share any of the pictures, I post-process them – sort of like putting them through a digital darkroom – to remove flaws and adjust the saturation and contrast. It takes time, but I have been able to streamline my process somewhat.
I have just completed processing the last groups of images from the first big western trip we took after I retired in 2007. I’ve started creating videos using photos from that trip, with background music from YouTube audio swap. The first two of the series have been already posted:
Since I’ve finished with all the groups of images from the trip, the video for today is a montage of photographs from the trip; for the most part, one picture each day of our travels and explorations.
The audio track is Paul Mottram’s “Sidewalk Saunter.”
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Native grasses at a travel rest stop at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge, Kansas, intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Kansas 52 – with our motorhome and car in the background.
From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
The Refuge is named after the Marais des Cygnes River which runs through the middle of the refuge and is the dominant natural feature of the region. The name, Marais des Cygnes, comes from the French language and means Marsh of the Swans. It is presumed that trumpeter swans, which were historically common in the Midwest, used the wetlands adjacent to the Marais des Cygnes River during spring and fall migration.
The Refuge was established in 1992 for the protection and restoration of bottomland hardwood forests. Approximately 5,000 acres of the 7,500 acre refuge are available for wildlife oriented recreation including hunting, fishing, and birding. A wildlife sanctuary encompasses the remaining 2,500 acres of the refuge and is not available for public use.
The Marais des Cygnes Massacre:
The Marais des Cygnes Massacre is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 19, 1858, approximately 30 men led by Charles Hamilton, a Georgia native and proslavery leader, crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri. They arrived at Trading Post, Kansas in the morning and then headed back to Missouri. Along the way they captured 11 free-state men, none of whom were armed and, it is said, none of whom had participated in the ongoing violence. Most of the men knew Hamilton and apparently did not realize he meant them harm. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered the men shot and fired the first bullet himself. Five men were killed.
Hamilton and his gang returned to Missouri. Only one man was ever brought to justice. William Griffith of Bates County, Missouri, was arrested in the spring of 1863 and hanged on October 30 of that year. Charles Hamilton returned to Georgia, where he died in 1880.
The incident horrified the nation and inspired John Greenleaf Whittier to write a poem on the murders, “Le Marais du Cygne,” which appeared in the September 1858 Atlantic Monthly.
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Weather and climate were important topics in the plains states of the U.S. in the 1930s.
Photo #1 is Garden City, Kansas at 5:15 p.m. Note street lights and compare to photo # 2 to orient picture. Second image is approximately 15 minutes later after dust storm blotted out the sun. Street lights are on allowing orientation of picture .
From “Effect of Dust Storms on Health,” U. S. Public Health Service, Reprint No,. 1707 from the Public Health Reports, Vol. 50, no. 40, October 4, 1935.
NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Collection
Location: Kansas
Photo Date: 1935
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Sunflowers in field across from Frontier Park, Hays, Kansas.
In 2004, we took a short trip to Colorado, where we had rented a small A-frame cabin near Cripple Creek for a week. We took two days to get there. Our first stop was in Hays, Kansas, on August 21.
(click on image for larger version)
See more of our Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
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Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on new photo galleries, mostly from Colorado and some from as far back as 2004.
I’ll be posting a few images from these galleries over the next several weeks.
Except for photos while we are traveling, most of the images that I post from my photography are randomly selected from my on-line galleries.
I am currently publishing images on alternate days on two blogs, exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About. Except for photos that may have been posted during a trip, photos are only published on a blog one time and the images are not replicated between the two blogs.
We will be traveling again this year and will be visiting new places as well as old favorites – and, of course, I will have a lot more new photos.
Colorado
Kansas
Oklahoma
Canton Lake – August 29, 200
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