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Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum

Statue of Amelia Earhart in front of museum in Atchison
Amelia Earhart statue, Atchison (Kan.)

Amelia Earhart speaks. She smiles, looks up, and begins to talk about her life experiences.

Wait – didn’t Amelia Earhart disappear in the South Pacific 80 years ago?

Yes, but she is alive again – at least virtually – in an incredible museum that will open in her hometown of Atchison in spring, 2023.

Joe Brentano is director of the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum. Makinzie Burghart is director of development. Burghart grew up in Atchison as did Amelia Earhart 120 years earlier.

Earhart and her younger sister, Muriel, spent many of their early years at their grandparent’s home in Atchison. In 1908, she saw her first airplane at the Iowa State Fair, but it didn’t excite her at the time.

Years later, she and a friend were at a flying exposition when a stunt pilot dived at them.  “I believe that little red airplane spoke to me as it swished by,” Earhart later wrote.

After attending another air show, she was hooked on flying. She would go on to become the first president of the Ninety-Nines, a women’s aviation organization; the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic; first woman to fly solo coast-to-coast; and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland. Continue reading “Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum”

Lucas Hass and Grant Wagner, Flyboys

To find a good brewery, does a person have to go to the big city? No. In fact, we’re going to visit the state’s smallest town with an active brewery.

Store front, Fly Boys Brewery and Eats, Sylvan Grove
Fly Boys Brewery and Eats, Sylvan Grove (Kan.)

Lucas Hass and Grant Wagner are the owners of Fly Boy Brewery & Eats in Sylvan Grove. Both Lucas and Grant are originally from Bennington.

“I’ve always loved food and cooking, and also a good beer,” Lucas said. He worked at a steakhouse in Emporia before taking a job doing business analytics at a manufacturing company in Salina.

Grant became a chef at top-end restaurants in Kansas City before moving back to north central Kansas to be near family.

In 2014, Clay and Linda Haring bought a building in Sylvan Grove, remodeled it, and started a brewery and restaurant. Clay is an agricultural pilot and Linda is a teacher. Because Clay was a pilot, they decorated the establishment with an aviation theme and called it Fly Boy Brewery & Eats, or Flyboys for short.

Grant Wagner helped them set up the kitchen. When Clay and Linda got so busy with their other work that they decided to sell the restaurant, Grant approached Lucas with the idea of buying it. Together they became the new owners of Fly Boy Brewery & Eats. “This is a great restaurant and we didn’t want it to be lost,” Lucas said.

“We try to make all the main dishes from scratch,” Lucas said. The menu features steaks, burgers, sandwiches, seafood, chicken and salads. There’s the Landing Strip Burger, Plane Jane burger, Crop Duster, Hanger Over, and more.

“At heart, we’re a steakhouse,” Lucas said. “Our ribeye, KC strip, and chicken fried steak are really popular.”

Continue reading “Lucas Hass and Grant Wagner, Flyboys”