A National Park Service researcher is calling. He is working on a feasibility study which is considering the addition of the Western Cattle Trail to the National Park System. The person he is calling is a western author located in rural Kansas.
Last week in Kansas Profile, we met Margaret and Gary Kraisinger, owners of The Old Hardware Store in Halstead. Gary and Margaret are also published authors who have extensively researched the history of the west, specifically the historic Western Cattle Trail.
Gary was raised at Hays and met and married Margaret at Fort Hays State. They became teachers and took teaching positions at Dighton. Margaret taught high school business and English, and Gary taught Kansas history and math at the junior high level while doing graduate work in the summertime.
One day a local rancher approached them and said that he had something he wanted to show them. “One Sunday afternoon, we went out there and the rancher took us out into his pasture,” Margaret said. “We were driving across the pasture and then he turned his wheels sharply, and it was like a washboard. What is that, we asked. `Well, it’s not wagon ruts, but we think it is a cattle trail,’ he said.”
The interest of Gary and Margaret was piqued. Was there an old-time cattle trail that had passed through the region? Gary and Margaret agreed to look into it.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Margaret Kraisinger – Western Cattle Trails”
