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Taken with the Olympus µ II (aka Stylus Epic) camera that I first used in week 145 of my 52 film cameras in 52 weeks project:
www.flickr.com/photos/tony_kemplen/collections/72157623113584240
Agfaphoto CT Precisa ISO 100 slide film, cross-processed in the Tetenal C41 kit.
This statue is in the Manhattan, KS city park. See story below.
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Johnny Kaw is a fictional Kansas settler and the subject of a number of Paul Bunyan-esque tall tales about the settling of the territory.
The legend of Johnny Kaw was created in 1955 by George Filinger, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University, to celebrate the centennial of Manhattan, Kansas. The stories were initially printed in the city newspaper, The Manhattan Mercury, during the centennial and later collected into a self-published book by Filinger, who created Kaw to be Kansas' answer to other heroes like Bunyan and Pecos Bill. Elmer Tomasch of the Kansas State University Art Department provided ink drawings to illustrate the stories and the book.
Fiilinger's stories related how Johnny Kaw created the Kansas landscape, geography and pioneer trails. Kaw was said to have dug the Kansas River Valley, planted wheat, invented sunflowers, and grown giant potatoes. Kaw even controlled the weather, lopping the funnels off tornadoes and wringing out the clouds to end droughts. His pets were the mascots for the two state universities: a wildcat and a jayhawk, who enjoyed a good fight. The Dust Bowl was said to be a result of their fights.
Filinger's book was not republished after 1969, but Kansas author Jerri Garretson released a children's picture book about Johnny Kaw in 1997. Her book was illustrated by another KSU art instructor, Diane A. Dollar. A color edition of the book was published in September 2011 and the original B&W version was included in the 2008 anthology, "Kansas Tall Tales."
The giant brass statue by popular artist KAWS looms over all at the NGV.
Panasonic GX85 | Panasonic G Vario 7-14mm f4 | Lightroom 4.4
Taken with the Olympus µ II (aka Stylus Epic) camera that I first used in week 145 of my 52 film cameras in 52 weeks project:
www.flickr.com/photos/tony_kemplen/collections/72157623113584240
Agfaphoto CT Precisa ISO 100 slide film, cross-processed in the Tetenal C41 kit.
Johnny Kaw Statue
The Pioneer Kansas Wheat Farmer
A 24-foot tall statue of Johnny Kaw, the Pioneer Kansas Wheat farmer, stands in the Manhattan City Park. The statue was constructed in 1966, eleven years after the Manhattan Centennial celebration that inspired George Filinger to write the story of Johnny Kaw.
Sparking Interest in Kansas History
The 1955 centennial committee had trouble getting people and the media interested in Kansas history. Fillinger, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University, believed that a tall tale character might spark interest. He created Johnny Kaw to be Kansas' answer to other heroes like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill.
A black and white image of a statue of a man
Kansas' Hero
Johnny created the Kansas landscape, geography, and pioneer trails. He dug the Kaw River Valley, planted wheat, invented sunflowers, and grew giant potatoes. Johnny even controlled the weather, lopping the funnels off tornadoes and wringing out the clouds to end droughts. His pets were the Wildcat and the Jayhawk, who, though fast friends, enjoyed a good scrap now and then. The result of their fights was the Dust Bowl.
Johnny didn't take kindly to Paul Bunyan tromping down his wheat so he had quite a fight with the other big fellow and used his nose to plow the Mississippi River Bed. He even went west and helped Finn McCool dig the Grand Canyon and then piled up the rubble to form the Rocky Mountains. Filinger had a fine tall tale imagination, and his stories captured the interest of people across the state. Johnny was intended to be a Kansas figure, not simply a local Manhattan one, and he was careful to include as much of Kansas as he could.
Kansas City, Kaw Valley & Western Motor #505 rolls along the line, perhaps near Edwardsville with some nice looking NP and SP boxcars in tow.
According to Don's Depot ( donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr352.htm ), the "505 was built by Baldwin-Westinghouse in May,1921, #54748, as Northeast Oklahoma Ry 2. It was purchased in 1940 by Cedar Rapids & Iowa City as 57 and then sold to the KCKV as 505 in 1954. In 1963 it became Iowa Terminal Ry as 51."
Like the other slides in this collection, the mounts are stamped with the name "J.M. Canfield."