Travel

KPA Members: All photos have now been uploaded. Following Wednesday's article in the Kansas Publisher, all stories are released for use by KPA members in good standing only.


Effort promotes lesser-known venues

By Murrel Bland,past president of KPA

I spent several weeks recently editing stories and photos that tell of selected lesser-known Kansas tourism venues.

The effort started about three years ago as a project of the Kansas Newspaper Foundation in cooperation with students at the University of Kansas and Wichita State University.

I learned two very basic things during this process:
• There are very dedicated volunteers who help keep tourist venues open; and
• There is a dreadfully inefficient state bureaucracy that tries to promote tourism in Kansas.

My idea was to produce a special newspaper section that would tell of these tourist venues. This section would then be inserted into all newspapers in Kansas. Some of the proceeds of the project would be donated to the Newspaper Foundation — an organization that, among other things, helps provide educational services for smaller, family-owned weekly newspapers.

Our efforts to accomplish that through the Kansas Travel & Tourism offices were not fruitful.

These stories about the smaller venues will not be lost despite the refusal of the state to help fund the project. They have been placed on this website maintained by the Kansas Press Association, and member newspapers will be encouraged to develop their own Kansas travel sections using these stories and photos.

I commend folks in these smaller venues — mostly volunteers — who promote their locations because of the love of their communities. I see that in places like the Wichita Aviation Museum, the Oxford one-room school in Leawood and the Wyandotte County Museum.

If you have any questions about any of the articles or see mistakes that need to be corrected, contact Doug Anstaett at KPA.

Murrel Blandis the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press.

Arboretum

Arboretum picture



Atchison

Atchison art


Aviation Museum

Aviation Museum Art



Beto Junction

Beto Junction Art



Brown v. Board of Ed

Brown v. Board Art



Buffalo Soldiers

Buffalo Soldiers Art



Chase County Courthouse

Courthouse Art



Colwich

Colwich Art



Combat Aviation

Combat Art



Cosmosphere

Cosmosphere Art



Electric House

Electric House Art



Firefighters Museum

Firefighters Art



Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden Art



Greensburg Well

Pre-Tornado Art



Post-Tornado Art



Haskell

Haskell Art



Konza Prairie

Konza Art



Lawrence Trail

Lawrence Trail Art



Legler Barn

Legler Barn Art



Ottawa Depot

Ottawa Depot Art




Oxford School

Oxford School Art



Schoolhouse Restaurant

Schoolhouse Art



Shawnee Mission Park

Shawnee Park Art



Topeka Zoo

Topeka Zoo Art



WA House

William Allen White Art



Wyandotte County

Wyandotte Museum Art




Grinter House Art (Wyandotte County)




Ag Hall of Fame Art (Wyandotte County)




Yoder

Yoder Art