Kansas State University

search

Kansas Profile

Tag: Lowell Observatory

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Tombaugh – Burdett

Along Kansas Highway 156 about fifty miles west of Great Bend is the rural community of Burdett. Next to the water tower is a roadside park with a historical marker devoted to a local boy who became the discoverer of the planet Pluto.

Last week we learned about Clyde Tombaugh, the local farm boy whose interest in astronomy would lead to his discovery of another planet. Don Cloutman is one of the citizens of Burdett who is seeking to continue to honor Tombaugh’s legacy.

Don grew up southwest of Burdett in another rural community, the town of Minneola, population 717 people. Now, that’s rural.

Don studied zoology at Fort Hays State where he met his wife who is from Burdett. After serving in the Army, he went to graduate school at Arkansas, became a fisheries biologist at Duke Power Company in North Carolina, and earned a Ph.D. at Mississippi State. Dr. Cloutman became a professor of biology at Bemidji State University before he and his wife retired to Burdett.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Tombaugh – Burdett”

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Tombaugh – Pluto

Feb. 18, 1930. A young man is studying outer space at an observatory in Arizona. He is comparing telescopic, photographic images of the distant night sky. Suddenly a terrific thrill comes over him as he realizes that the image he has just seen provides the scientific evidence of a historic discovery: He has discovered a planet. It was a remarkable accomplishment for a young farm boy from Kansas.

Clyde Tombaugh is credited with discovering Pluto in 1930.

Clyde Tombaugh is the man who discovered Pluto. In his autobiography, Out of the Darkness, Tombaugh describes how it all began. He was born on a farm in Illinois. In 1922, his family moved to a wheat farm near Burdett, Kansas.

While studying geography in the sixth grade, Tombaugh thought: “What would the geography on other planets be like?” Clyde’s uncle Lee lived on a farm nearby. He was an amateur astronomer. Lee lent him a simple telescope and an astronomy book which Clyde found fascinating. Scientists like Galileo became his childhood heroes.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Clyde Tombaugh – Pluto”