Bottle Cap Collection

Larry Dilts, part-time maintenance guy at Prairie Museum of Art & History, has been collecting crimp-on bottle caps for many years. He has graciously agreed to share his collection by exhibiting part of it in our lobby during the month of October.  Thank You Larry!

Larry tells the story of his collecting better than I could:

 

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Below are a few examples from this awesome private collection.

  

Please take time to visit Prairie Museum of Art & History during the month of October to see Larry's collection. (There is no admission fee for lobby exhibits.)

Remember, if you have a collection of almost anything you would like to share with museum visitors, please visit with Ray by calling 785-460-4590 or email registrar@prairiemuseum.org

WaKeeney Land Office Records

The U. S. Land Office was moved from Hays to WaKeeney in November 1879 by order of President Grover Cleveland.  President Cleveland appointed a man named Beard to head the land office. The land office was a great boon to WaKeeney since it brought a lot of people to town. Some homesteaded, and others started businesses in town.

Several months ago when the original records from the land office were ear-marked for disposal, representatives from Sheridan County Historical Society in Hoxie happened to be in the right place at the right time. They recognized the historic value of the documents from the late 1800's and took over guardianship of the old records. Jan Moore and her staff have been diligently sorting the records by county with the goal of placing them in the county where the land in the transactions is located. Last week Jan brought a box of them to Thomas County Historical Society.

It is not unusual for historical societies and museums to share documents and photographs in an attempt to get them archived in the county or area of their origin. 

Below are examples of the types of records in the collection:

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There are several hundred pages of these documents. It is going to take a while to catalog, scan and file all of them. When the task is completed it will be a fantastic addition to our documents archives. Once cataloged it will be possible to search them by date, legal description of the parcel of land, and by individuals names. Sounds like a genealogists dream.

 Jan Moore, director of Sheridan County Historical Society & Mickey Museum in Hoxie will be the guest speaker at our monthly "Food for Thought" program here at Prairie Museum at noon November 19, 2015. Donations are accepted for the meal and the programs are priceless!

 
 

Pay Telephone

This week, Susan Molstad Wilson, a former Colby resident stopped at the museum while visiting relatives in the area. She came bearing a wonderful addition to our collection.

 This vintage pay phone is in excellent condition and it actually works. We connected it to our phone line and made and received calls on it. This one has been altered to bypass the "pay" feature. We don't have to feed it coins for it to operate. The only thing missing is the instruction and rate information card which would have been located directly under the dial.

This is a typical example of a Western Electric three-slot pay phone model 233G. Three-slot phones like this were used by Western Electric (Bell System) from the 1940's through the 1970's. They had a coin slot for each of 3 kinds of coins - Nickel, Dime and Quarter. When you inserted a coin, it either rang a special bell or gong to signal the operator what kind of coin it was. A nickel was one 'ding', a dime two 'dings', while a quarter was a 'gong' sound. For local calls, depositing a set amount of money completed a circuit to the local telephone company central switching equipment. The coin hopper flipped down allowing you to recover returned coins if the call was not completed or change was due. 

Early pay telephones could be found in phone booths on street corners or in public buildings. The first coin-operated phone was installed in a bank in Hartford, Connecticut in1889. In 1960 the Bell System installed its one millionth telephone booth. The peak number of pay phones in the United States was 2.6 million in 1995. By 2013 there were less than 500,000 as the major carriers exited the business, leaving the business to independent pay phone companies. Now, with the extensive use of cell phones, the pay telephone has become a rare item indeed.

Thanks, Susan, for donating this great piece of American history! 

Colby Municipal Airport

Colby will be one of the stops on September 30 during the multi-city 2015 Fly Kansas Air Tour. The 2015 tour is sponsored by Kansas Commission on Aerospace Education in partnership with Kansas Department of Transportation, Division of Aviation. The tour starts with Wellington, Pratt, Dodge City and Liberal on September 29th, continues to Garden City Colby, and Hays on the 30th, and with Concordia, Junction City and Emporia on the route for October 1st.

While preparing a poster with a brief history of Colby Municipal Airport for this event, I wanted to share a few of the highlights from our photo and newspaper archives.

In the 1920's Colby residents and city fathers realized the importance an airport could mean to a community looking to expand and connect with other parts of Kansas and the United States. Residents were excited when a letter was received at the Chamber of Commerce in late July 1927 from Chicago & Southwestern Air Lines expressing an interest in making Colby a stop on their Denver to Kansas City route. The need for a landing field became top priority.

 (Click photos to enlarge)

 The first airport in Colby was located west of town on a tract of land owned by the Wallace farm in the NE1/4 Section 2, Township 8S, Range 34W.

"A site has been selected for our Airport. The City has leased a tract of land on the Wallace farm a mile west of Colby. Forrest Wallace, who occupies the home place will get quite a wallop from having the airport right in his back yard."  (Quote from the Colby Free Press, May 18, 1930)

This Piper Cub airplane was the first one owned by Dwight Murray in the fall of 1940. Notice the Murray Motors - DeSoto/Plymouth - Colby, Kansas painted on the door. The Cub is parked at the first City Airport in the Wallace pasture west of the Colby Experiment Station. The Wallace home and farm buildings are in the background.

In the fall of 1942, discussion about a new airport was on the Chamber of Commerce agenda. It was decided to ask the Colby City Council to ask the community to vote on bonds for a new airport. The money would be used to obtain land and build facilities.

Results of the $65,000 bond election appreared in the April 7, 1943 Colby Free Press with 340 voting for and 101 voting against it.  A city ordinance passed on September 7, 1943 officially named the airport Colby Municipal Airport. Land was acquired north of Colby, but construction did not begin right away because of World War II.

 Aerial view of Colby Municipal Airport

 Harlan Williams was airport manager in the 1960's. Shown here in front of the main hanger and terminal building.

On June 2, 1975 the Colby City Council under the direction of Mayor Don Phillips the airport was officially named Shalz Field in honor of Joe Shalz, an early Thomas County aviator.

 Joe Shalz "The Flying Dutchman" by his first airplane, August 20, 1929.

 An open house celebration at the airport.

The 1980's saw many improvements and changes at the airport when federal government grants were made available. Some of the improvements included extension of the length and width of the runways, improved taxiways, new runway lighting, and a new terminal building completed in 1984.

Colby Municipal Airport Terminal Building 2015

Modern comfortable pilot - passenger lounge area in the terminal building.

If you have photos, stories, or memoriabelia to share about aviation in Thomas County please bring or send them to Prairie Museum of Art & History, 1905 S. Franklin Ave., Colby, Kansas 67701. Or e-mail prairiem@st-tel.net

 

First "Temporary" Exhibit Opens

Our new space for "temporary" exhibits became a reality today. Our goal is to use an area in the lobby of the Prairie Museum of Art & History to showcase groups of items from our own collection, but also to make this space available for members of the community to exhibit items they collect as well. The lighted case has exhibit space approximately 5 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. 

If you have a collection you would like to put on temporary exhibit in this space, please come in and visit with Ray to schedule your show or call 785-460-4590. We hope to change exhibits on a monthly basis. Since the exhibit is in the lobby, there is no admission to see it. 

Toothpick Holders

Our first temporary exhibit is a collection of toothpick holders accumulated by Olive (Lewallen) Pridemore. This collection of over 130 toothpick holders includes those made of wood, ceramics, metal, and glass. Many are souvenirs of her extensive travels. Her entire collection was donated to Prairie Museum of Art & History in 1999.

 (Click photos to enlarge)

 Some are colorful pieces of art.

 Some are whimsical.

Others are souvenirs of places visited.

About the Collector

Olive Marie Pridemore was born in Colby, Kansas to Elmer W. and Lois A. (Hamill) Lewallen. She was a 1931 Colby High School graduate.

After high school she entered Halstead Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1936. She met her husband Bernice Pridemore while working at a hospital in Lamar, Colorado

They moved to Colby in 1951 where Olive worked at St. Thomas Hospital for a short time before going to work in the office of Dr. George Marshall until 1961. She and her husband traveled visiting 38 states, Mexico, and Canada. In 1973 she accepted the position of Home Health Nurse. She eventually became head of the Thomas County Health Department. She retired in 1980 and continued traveling making trips to Alaska and Hawaii.

Olive's many hobbies included crocheting, knitting, quilting, ceramics, reading, playing bingo, and watching baseball.