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Tag: Now That’s Rural

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: John G. Montgomery – Daily Union

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Terrorists attack U.S.” “Nixon to resign.” “Hope speeds search for Amelia Earhart.”  “Fiery explosion claims shuttle crew.” “Eisenhower dies.” “Steamer Lusitania torpedoed.”  These are actual headlines about pivotal moments of crisis in American history, as they appeared in the Junction City Daily Union newspaper through the decades. For four generations, John Montgomery and his family have been leaders in the newspaper industry in Junction City and beyond.

John G. Montgomery

John G. Montgomery is the retired publisher of the Junction City Daily Union and other community newspapers in the region. His family has deep roots in the newspaper business, beginning with great-grandfather John Montgomery who worked as an apprentice at a newspaper office in Iowa. One day in 1865, young John received word by telegraph that President Lincoln had been assassinated. He set the type to print the story in the newspaper and then delivered the papers himself.

After the Civil War, the young newspaperman came west to Kansas. In 1888, he bought the Weekly Union newspaper in Junction City. Four years later, it became a daily. The Daily Union is now believed to be the third oldest continuously published newspaper in Kansas.

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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: Trudy Rice – National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

It was time to elect a new president. No, I’m not talking about the Electoral College. In this case, I’m referring to a national professional association which was electing new officers. When the voting was done, the new president of this national organization is a woman from rural Kansas.

Kansas native Trudy Rice is the incoming president of the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals

Trudy Rice is the incoming president of this organization known as the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals, or NACDEP. That name is quite a mouthful, but it represents lots of important community development educational programming which is being carried out across the country.

Trudy grew up in western Kansas and graduated from Norton. She went to K-State and got a degree in education. She also met and married Ron Rice and returned with him to his family farm in Douglas County south of Lawrence.

Trudy began her career in extension as a 4-H agent in Douglas County and then took time off to stay home as she and Ron had children. She also owned and operated her own small business. When the kids were older, she returned to extension as a family and consumer sciences agent in Douglas County. Son Brad is now back on the farm and daughter Brandie is a faculty member at K-State.

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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: Rosie Bosse – Author

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Grandma, tell me a story!” Those words are a call for storytime. In the case of one rural Kansas woman, those words would ultimately inspire a book and the beginning of a series.

Kansas native Rosie Bosse is the author of How Clicker the Dog Earned his Name.
Kansas native Rosie Bosse is the author of “How Clicker, the Dog, Earned his Name.”

Rosie Bosse lives with her husband J.R. on the family farm near Onaga, Kansas. Rosie grew up on a farm in Jewell County. She got a degree in home economics education from K-State. One night she went out dancing and met her future husband, J.R.

“We said we would wait five years to have children,” Rosie said with a smile. “Well, our first one was born nine months and three days after the wedding.” Within six years they had four children. Rosie chose to stay at home with the kids. She worked as a substitute teacher and got involved with Tupperware.

“I wanted a set of cereal bowls that I couldn’t afford, but I could get the kit free if I held four Tupperware parties so that’s what I did,” Rosie said. After hosting, she found she really liked the products and people. In fact, she was eventually promoted to a director with the company. She now has 55 people on her team. Hers is one of the most successful sales teams in Kansas.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Joy Miller – New Horizon Ranch – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Reuse, recycle, rebuckle. That’s not exactly the popular environmental slogan, but it describes a remarkable therapeutic riding center that is using creative ways to benefit the lives of its students.

New Horizon Ranch near Rantoul, Kansas offers equine-assisted therapy and educational programs.
New Horizon Ranch near Rantoul, Kansas offers equine-assisted therapy and educational programs.

Last week we met Joy and Brian Miller, co-founders of New Horizon Ranch near Rantoul. New Horizon Ranch is a non-profit therapeutic horseback riding center which offers various kinds of equine-assisted activities and learning, psychotherapy, and summer day camp programs for individuals of all ages with physical and mental disabilities.

In therapeutic riding, people with disabilities learn horsemanship and riding skills which can also benefit communication, social skills, decision-making, balance, and strength.  For example, if someone is wheelchair-bound, the horse’s gait simulates the movement and benefit of walking. Joy has also observed how horses can bond with the rider in beneficial ways.

“A horse has a magical ability to connect with people,” Joy said. “Macho kids from inner Kansas City will come out here and say, `This is dumb,’ but within thirty minutes they’re petting the horses….every time!”

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