Let’s take a trip back in time. How far? Let’s say, a couple of thousand years. That’s the premise of a play that one rural Kansas community performs live on Easter Sunday, using a remarkable stone outcropping as a natural stage.
Dale and Berny Unruh and Roy and Tricia Prescott are co-organizers of the working committee that produces this play as the Pawnee Rock Easter Pageant. Dale is a native of the area who taught agriculture before farming. While at K-State, he met his wife Berny, who became an extension agent. Berny is originally from the rural community of Munden, population 100 people. Now, that’s rural.
Tricia grew up at Pawnee Rock. She went to Fort Hays State, married Roy, and is a teacher. Both the Unruhs and the Prescotts live near Pawnee Rock today.
The town of Pawnee Rock is named for the actual rock, a remarkable sandstone outcropping that stands 50 feet above the surrounding plains. For centuries it has been a landmark for natives and travelers across the prairie.
In 1932, an east-coast author wrote an Easter-themed play called The Way of the Cross. It tells the story of a modern-day person who goes back in time and is observing the events in the city of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’s crucifixion. According to the Bible, the crucifixion took place on a hill near Jerusalem.
In 1936, the ministerial alliance at Pawnee Rock decided to perform this play outside as a sunrise Easter pageant, using the rock itself as the natural backdrop. Three crosses were temporarily placed atop the rock. A choir provided accompaniment. It worked so well that, until 1972, the pageant was performed annually (except for World War II) on Easter Sunday. Continue reading “Pawnee Rock Easter Pageant”
