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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Ryan Semmel – Geocaching – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Let’s go hunting. No, not for deer or turkey. Today we are going hunting for a geocache, a hidden container which we can find with the aid of GPS technology. The practice of finding geocaches is not only attracting visitors to Kansas, it is bringing a major gathering of geocachers to our state in spring 2017.

Last week we met geocaching enthusiast Ryan Semmel. He is a leader of the effort to bring a major geocaching event to Kansas. After serving in the Army overseas and most recently at Fort Riley, he retired in Manhattan. Ryan and his wife have two daughters and a son.

Ryan enjoys geocaching, the practice of finding hidden caches outdoors through the use of GPS technology. The caches are small containers containing a logbook and, in some cases, trinkets for exchange. Someone will hide the cache and then post the location on the geocaching.com website for people to find. When a cache is found, the finder enters his or her user name in the logbook, exchanges gifts if desired, and then posts about it on the website.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Ryan Semmel – Geocaching – Part 1

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

A group of Australians is visiting the U.S. They will likely tour various U.S. landmarks and tourist locations, but one of their stops is at a rural location on the High Plains of Kansas. Why? The answer is that they are not just touring, they are geocaching.  Geocaching has become a worldwide practice. One of the very first geocache locations was in rural Kansas.

Ryan Semmel is the person who told me about geocaching. Ryan is a military retiree, having served around the U.S. and overseas. He was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and then in Germany before coming to Kansas again. After serving at Fort Riley, he retired in Manhattan. “We love it here,” Ryan said.

“I’ve always liked adventure,” Ryan said. While serving previously at Fort Leavenworth, he heard about an outdoor scavenger hunt in Missouri. “I did it with one of my soldiers,” Ryan said. “It was so much fun that another soldier gave me a brochure about geocaching.” When he was subsequently stationed in Germany, Ryan did geocaching with his family.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Dane Hansen – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

 From scholarships to strategies, from volunteers to entrepreneurs, from rural health care to community betterment: All those elements are being supported by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation which is investing deeply and strategically in northwest Kansas.

Betsy Wearing is coordinator of programs, communications, and new initiatives for the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Betsy was a long-time director of the Greater Salina Community Foundation before joining Hansen.

Last week we learned about successful entrepreneur Dane Hansen. His estate plan provided part of his assets for a foundation in his hometown of Logan to benefit northwest Kansas. A group of excellent trustees has grown those assets through the years.

For decades, the Hansen Foundation has been known for the scholarships it provides to students in northwest Kansas. There are several categories of these renewable college scholarships which can provide a student up to $10,000 per year. Last year 280 total scholarships were made available.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Dane Hansen – Part 1

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What do you do with 100 extra mules? That’s probably not a problem you’ve dealt with lately, but it’s an interesting sidelight on the early career of a Kansas entrepreneur years ago. He became a titan of Kansas business, a behind-the-scenes leader in the nation’s government, and a tremendous benefactor of rural Kansas.

Dane Hansen was born in 1883 to pioneer parents. His father was a Danish immigrant who came to Kansas and met and married a young schoolteacher in Logan. Logan is in Phillips County in northwest Kansas.

Dane grew up in Logan. He had the mind of an entrepreneur. As a child, his father had a grist mill. Young Dane would go to the river crossing to watch for farmers bringing wagon loads of wheat to town to be processed. Dane would ask for a ride and then direct them to his father’s mill, until it was time to go again for the next prospective customer.  That’s pretty creative.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Russ Fulmer – Fulmer’s Kansas Premium Meats and Eatery

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Quality: It’s defined by Merriam-Webster as “degree of excellence” or “superiority in kind.” One Kansas entrepreneur set out to achieve and share high quality with meat, and that has led to a unique retail store for Kansas products.

Russ Fulmer and wife Roxey are the owners of Fulmer’s Kansas Premium Meats and Eatery near Belvue. Russ is a third-generation farmer and cattle feeder in Pottawatomie County, so he knows first-hand the importance of feeding and handling cattle properly in order to achieve the best results. When a farmer-owned cooperative named U.S. Premium Beef devised a system for providing compensation for higher-quality product, it helped beef quality to advance.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Walter Anderson – First Fast Food Hamburger Chain – White Castle

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What was the first fast food hamburger chain in the world, and where did it begin? You are correct if you answered White Castle in Wichita.  This innovative company was begun by a man from rural Kansas.  It’s today’s Kansas Profile.

Walter Anderson, who grew up in St. Mary’s, Kansas was co-founder of White Castle, considered to be the first fast food hamburger chain.

Walter Anderson was born in 1880. He became a short order cook. In 1916, he opened his first diner in a converted streetcar in downtown Wichita.

Walt Anderson liked to experiment in the kitchen. According to legend, one day he became so frustrated with how his meatballs were sticking to the griddle that he smashed one with a spatula. With that, the flat patty was born.

Anderson found that starting with a mound of fresh beef, pressing it into a flat square and poking five well-placed holes in the meat meant that he could cook the burger thoroughly without having to flip it. He also found that cooking the patty on a bed of chopped onions on the grill with the bun on top permitted all of the flavors to permeate the bun.

His hamburgers were so popular that he wanted to expand to additional locations. He enlisted the help of a real estate agent named Billy Ingram. As the men got acquainted, they decided to go into business together on a hamburger restaurant.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Allen Bailey – Marshal of Dodge City

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Illesheim, Germany. This audience is excited because authentic cowboys from Kansas are performing cowboy music. One of them is even the official marshal of Dodge City.  He’s a man of many talents who comes from rural Kansas.

Allen Bailey is the marshal of Dodge City, Kansas.
Allen Bailey is the marshal of Dodge City, Kansas.

Allen Bailey is the western performer who carries the title of Dodge City marshal. Allen grew up at Cimarron, Kansas and went on to a varied career, working for the gas company, building saddles and cleaning hats, working for a hospital and senior citizens home and then in education.

Several key interests surfaced early in his life. First of all, his dad had a cow-calf operation. Allen loved horses and the cowboy life. Second, he enjoyed history – especially Kansas history. Third, he liked to draw and create art. Fourth, he enjoyed music.

“One guy called me a Renaissance man but I told him I’m just a nut who likes to do lots of things,” Allen said. “I do love Kansas.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Greg Wolf – Family Food Store

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

San Diego, California. A package of delicious cherry rolls is being delivered to a customer. Would you believe, these baked goods were prepared by a family living half a continent away in rural Kansas?

The Family Food Store in Sawyer sells an assortment of freshly-baked breads.
The Family Food Store in Sawyer sells an assortment of freshly-baked breads.

Greg and Ruby Wolf are the owners of the Family Food Store, source of the cherry rolls that went to California. Greg grew up on a farm near Quinter during the farm crisis of the 1980s.

“I grew up thinking I was going to farm, but the farm economy took me away from that,” Greg said. “It gave me a desire to help farm families.”

Greg grew up in the Old German Baptist Brethren church. “We’re a conservative church somewhat similar to the Amish and Mennonite,” Greg said. “We drive cars, but we choose a simple lifestyle with no television, radio, or Internet.” It’s a close-knit fellowship, with lots of connections between churches.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Jacob Grinstead

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” That’s the motto of the National FFA Organization for high school agriculture students, and it’s an apt description of the equine career development of a young man from rural Kansas.

Kansas State University student Jacob Grinstead of Buhler, Kansas, has already held numerous leadership positions.
Kansas State University student Jacob Grinstead of Buhler, Kansas, has already held numerous leadership positions.

Jacob Grinstead is from south central Kansas. His family lives between Hutchinson and Buhler, where Jacob went to high school. At an early age, he was exposed to his family’s love of horses. The Grinstead family raises, shows and markets performance horses.

“My first memories were sitting in the bleachers at jackpots (competitions) watching dad rope,” Jacob said. He helped with chores as a kid. When his older sister went to college, his interests and opportunities grew. He showed horses in regional shows and developed interests in other aspects of the equine industry.

Jacob enrolled in agricultural education classes at Buhler High School and joined FFA where he practiced and developed his equestrian skills. As the FFA motto says, he was learning to do and doing to learn.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Karen Sturm – Talking Tombstones

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“If only those tombstones could talk….”  Have you ever had that thought while visiting a cemetery? Today we’ll meet a rural community which is giving a voice to fascinating histories of the past.

Karen Sturm
Karen Sturm

Karen Sturm is tourism coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce in Caldwell. This is a volunteer position, as was her time spent as president of the local historical society.

“I’ve always loved history,” Karen said. As a child, she enjoyed reading historical books.  Karen grew up at Caldwell and married a farmer. They have two sons and four granddaughters.

Caldwell is located near the Oklahoma border. It played a significant role in the 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Rush into Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In 1990, the community of Caldwell began a three-year process to prepare for the centennial of the land rush.  Karen stepped in to help with this celebration and learned much more about the fascinating history of Caldwell.

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