Tallgrass Aug-Oct

TALLGRASS
August - October 2016 I Volume 6
3
Latest exhibition, Going Home:
Hidden Histories of the Flint
Hills comes to FHDC!
4
Hand puppets galore at the
dinosaur puppet theater
with Priscilla Howe in June.
The annual Flint Hills Festival drew in a crowd
of 2,500 people to celebrate the Flint Hills!
An update on Dave Kendall’s
7 documentary on the Flint Hills.
www.flinthillsdiscovery.org 315 S. Third Street Manhattan, KS 66502 785.587.2726

Direction
Starting New
What a
summer!
With so
many activities to
choose from, it
seems as if summer
has flown by. As we
transition into fall
and the school year,
we focus on our
community activities
with an emphasis on
children. Our pace at the FHDC also
changes as we move away from the large
number of summer travelers to adult bus
tours and hosting adventure camps to
scheduled programs and weekend events.
It’s a great time to reflect and evaluate
our success for the first half of the year!
One of our many successes this year is
our current traveling exhibit, Amazing
Dinosaurs! If you haven’t checked it out,
be sure and do so before Sunday,
September 11; it is very hands on learning
for all ages. On September 11, we open to
the community for our annual Family Day,
offering free admission as a thank you for
the support throughout the year. We look
forward to many returning visitors as well as
those who have never visited before.
Many exciting events are taking place in
the next few months in the Flint Hills region.
On Saturday, August 27, the Tallgrass
National Preserve in Strong City will be
celebrating its 20th Anniversary along with
the National Park System celebrating its
100th Anniversary. For the Flint Hills region,
this is a wonderful opportunity for us to
show support to the Preserve and to
experience the beauty of the Flint Hills.
On Saturday, September 10, join the FHDC
and Suzi Paron for an educational workshop,
the Kansas Quilt. From 9:30-11:30 a.m., she
will be showcasing numerous locations to
visit in the Flint Hills to see amazing barn
quilts. She will also be hosting a book
signing from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the
FHDC atrium. For additional information,
please contact Visit Manhattan.
Thank you again for your support to the
Flint Hills Discovery Center through your
membership. We could not be successful
without your support!
Susan Adams, Director
Flint Hills Discovery Center
315 South Third Street
Manhattan, KS 66502
785.587.2726
Hours of Operation:
Open 363 days a year!
Membership Information:
membership.fhdc@cityofmhk.com
flinthillsdiscovery.org
Memorial Day - Labor Day
Mon. - Wed.: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thurs.: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Fri. & Sat.: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sun.: 12 - 6 p.m.
Labor Day - Memorial Day
Mon. - Wed.: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thurs.: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Fri. & Sat.: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sun.: 12 - 5 p.m.
About:
Tallgrass is produced by the
Flint Hills Discovery Center
and is published quarterly.
The Flint Hills Discovery Center
is a division of the City of
Manhattan’s Parks & Recreation
Department.
Partnerships & Sponsorships
• ESB Financial (Amazing Dinosaurs!)
• KU Natural History Museum (Amazing Dinosaurs!)
• Visit Manhattan
(Flint Hills Festival & National Day of the Cowboy)
• Chapman Center for Rural Studies (Going Home: Hidden Histories of the Flint Hills)
• FHDC Foundation
Our Mission:
The Flint Hills Discovery Center
inspires people to celebrate,
explore and care for the Flint Hills.
On the Cover:
Children enjoyed
In • descri • bubble at the
Flint Hills Festival in May.
2 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org August - October 2016

Exhibitions
Going Home: Hidden Histories of the Flint Hills comes to FHDC
Laura Ingalls Wilder once said that
“Home is the nicest word there is.”
A new exhibit comes to the Flint Hills
Discovery Center in the fall from the
Chapman Center and students of Kansas
State University.
“I am looking forward to hearing
visitors' stories of their hometowns
including the happy stories, the sad ones,
the funny ones,” said Bonnie Lynn-
Sherow, Associate Professor of American
History and Executive Director of the
Chapman Center for Rural Studies.
“These are important, but often forgotten,
details of our past.”
There will be many interactives within
the exhibit, including a map to help
locate lost towns in the Flint Hills, iPad
stations with stories of communities, a
place for visitors to record their
memories, a children’s area and more.
“I hope visitors will feel a connection
between themselves and the people of
the past,” said Lynn-Sherow. “That they
see folks just like themselves who lived
and worked and played in a place they
also called home.”
This exhibition represents the work
of undergraduate students over the past
several years working with faculty in the
Chapman Center for Rural Studies at KSU,
and made possible by an estate gift from
Mr. Mark Chapman. The stories, images,
sounds and even the exhibit films were
written, discovered and shot by an
amazing and talented group of young
scholars who care deeply about the Flint
Hills.
“We all long to go home, perhaps not
in a physical sense, but in our growing up
memories,” said Lynn-Sherow.
“Going Home will help visitors do that in
unique and profound ways.”
The exhibition opens Saturday,
September 24 at 10 a.m. to the public.
FHDC members receive a sneak preview
on Friday, September 23, 5:30-7 p.m.
Please call 785.587.2726 to reserve your
space today.
Stories, images, sounds and films were written, discovered and shot by Kansas State
scholars and will be showcased in the fall exhibition.
Membership
Amazing Dinosaurs! member preview a success
New Members
FRIENDS
Bluestem Members
• Athena & Russaud Emmans Family
• John & Tanya Clyde Family
• Manuel Molla
• Dennis & Georgia Dettmer
• Larry & Laurel Erickson
• John & Seana Balman
• Julia Jilek
Blue Earth Members
• Curtis & Elaine Mick Family
Thank you for your support!
Members enjoyed appetizers as well as a
sneak preview to Amazing Dinosaurs!
August - October 2016 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org 3

Education
From dynamos to dinosaurs, education is going prehistoric this summer!
Spring is field trip season for many
schools and we are proud to be the
destination for educators. Hundreds
of students came to learn more about the
Flint Hills through our unique educational
programs. Our Engineer It series has been
a success; younger students designed and
built windmills while older students
created impressive designs in our
Engineer It: Prosthetic Leg class.
This summer, it’s been all about
dinosaurs for the Flint Hills Discovery
Center education team this summer.
Pre-school classes were bursting with
students excited to learn more about
dinosaurs, so we doubled the number
of pre-school classes, offering afternoon
sessions to accommodate the high
demand. We made dinosaur feet,
removed fossils from ice and listened
to a series of wonderful dinosaur story
books.
Dinosaur Academy inspired a new
generation of paleontologists with
behind-the-scenes and hands-on fossil
exploration as well as a closer look at
how dinosaurs lived and died. Dinosaur
Academy students met with Tabatha
Gabay, a vertebrate paleontology
graduate student with the University
of Kansas. Tabatha answered questions
about paleontology and demonstrated
how she uncovers and preserves fossils.
In June, youth enjoyed Dinosaur Puppet
Dinner Theater with storyteller and
puppeteer Priscilla Howe. Priscilla
entertained us all with her special version
of fairy tales from a dinosaur’s
perspective. Our education team,
volunteers and Priscilla helped
participants create their own puppets
and watched them perform in a small
show of their own.
Our Summer Adventure Camps
included fossil digs, water balloon fights,
camping techniques and exciting off-site
field trips including the Kaw Mission and
Santa Fe Trail in Council Grove, and the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. We have a lot of
fun Adventure Camps planned for the fall
with a focus on communities and homes
of the past and present. We will learn
about the technology of the early settlers,
how to make tools pioneers used every
day and visit local buildings to learn more
about architecture!
Education
Calendar of events
Adventure Camps
September - December
Multiple dates available
7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Preschoolers in the
Flint Hills
September - December
Multiple dates available
10:30 - 11:30 a.m. & 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Tallgrass Tales
October, November, December
Multiple dates available
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Youth Dinner Theater
“Great American Medicine Show”
Saturday, October 22, 5:30-9 p.m.
Aggieville Mini Makers
Faire
Saturday, September 10, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Family Outdoor
Adventure Night
Saturday, September 24, 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Family Exploration Day
Saturday, October 15, 9 a.m. - noon
at Lee Mill Heights
Breakfast with Santa
Saturday, December 3 & 10
Ages 4-10 gathered to watch storyteller and puppeteer Priscilla Howe at the Dinosaur
Puppet Dinner Theater on June 25.
New Year’s Eve
Saturday, December 31, 2016
4 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org August - October 2016

Connecting with the Flint Hills
Scenic bus tours, hairy spiders, lectures and more!
It’s the final days of summer and the
perfect time to see the prairie in all its
glory. The Flint Hills Discovery Center
took advantage of the weather to
introduce a whole new audience
to the hills with new programming.
FHDC successfully launched a brand
new Tallgrass Tour Bus series with a trip
to Scenic Chase County on Saturday,
May 7. Participants started their day with
a guided tour of the bison pastures and
Spring Hill Ranch headquarters at
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve,
enjoyed lunch at Ad Astra in Strong City
and ended the day with a tour of the
historic Chase County Courthouse.
On June 18, we hosted our second
annual Wolf Spider Night Walk at
Fairmont Park. Professor Dustin Wilgers
from McPherson College led a group of
all ages to find, catch and release wolf
spiders. With the help of headlamps,
young and old looked for the eye shine
and trapped spiders as large as a child’s
hand!
The Go See It! lecture series continues
into the Fall with several lectures perfect
for the conservationist and historian in all
of us. On August 18, K-State Professor
Nathan Hendricks will present on the
Volunteering
Thank you to our volunteers in helping execute the annual Flint Hills Festival!
The Flint Hills Festival was a rousing
success and that is in large part
to our dedicated volunteers who
helped helm the activities. The Flint Hills
Discovery Center would like to give a
heartfelt thank you to our volunteers for
helping make the event a success.
Without our amazing volunteers, this
event would not have been possible!
We are very thankful for all the
experience and diverse skill sets our
volunteers bring to the FHDC. In fact,
Brad Shaw, a retired K State Spanish
professor, uses his multilingual skills in
the galleries quite often. Recently Brad
was even able to help us communicate
with a new member all the way in Spain!
We are so proud to have such a
diverse group of dedicated volunteers
who are instrumental to our guest
experience.
issue of modern sodbusting in the
United States. Then on September 15,
we welcome back Greg Hoots from the
Wabaunsee County Historical Society
who will speak on the early photography
of Otto Kratzer.
October 20 brings a unique evening
with the screening of the short film
“When the Well Runs Dry” from
filmmaker Steve Lerner. This film explores
the important tie between Flint Hills
residents and water resources. A panel
discussion about water will follow.
Finally, on November 17, we welcome
a select group of K-State faculty for a
moderated panel discussion all about
the future of the Flint Hills. What issues
will dominate the next 20, 50, or 100
years? Come learn more from these local
experts.
Chris Hupe presented, “Wamego Fireworks: A Look Behind the Magic”
in June for the monthly Go See It! lecture.
Please help welcome
new volunteers
• Renae Weaver
• Josh Keiter
• Sabrina Johnson
• Keegan Messer
• LuDell Smith
We appreciate you!
FHDC volunteers helped with various
events and activities at the Flint Hills
Festival including the rock wall!
August - October 2016 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org 5

New Faces at FHDC
Amber Myers, Education Specialist - STEM
Amber
has had
a long
relationship
with FHDC
beginning with
volunteering
back in 2012.
“My favorite
event so far
has been Flint
Hills Festival,”
said Myers. “It
was so much
fun seeing so many people enjoying a
day with their family and friends doing
activities that celebrate the diversity of
the Flint Hills.”
In her first four years, she served as
a volunteer, intern and an Education
Assistant. Amber holds a Bachelor of
Science degree from Kansas State
University in Park Management and
Conservation, as well as Natural
Resources and Environmental Science.
“We offer a space where families come
to play and discover and a place where
anyone can come to learn more about
our beautiful and endangered ecosystem,”
said Myers. “The Flint Hills Discovery
Center is a place they can be proud of.”
Most recently Amber worked as a
Naturalist at Milford Nature Center,
where she taught people of all ages
about Kansas' native plants and animals.
Originally from Hutchinson, Kansas,
Amber has lived in the Manhattan area
for 11 years.
“We are excited to be a part of the
community and strive to provide both
educational and recreational benefits
to all,” said Myers.
Mindy Robbins, Marketing Coordinator
Mindy
joins
the
Flint Hills
Discovery Center
from Wamego,
KS. She most
recently worked
at Community
Healthcare
System in
Onaga, KS.
“I’m looking forward to utilizing my
skills and gaining further experience
while fulfilling the mission of FHDC,”
said Robbins.
She filled a number of roles including
Human Resources Employee Specialist,
Communications, Foundation and Medial
Office Manager.
“I have started my second week this
week at the FHDC and I have to say
that the comradery amongst staff is
impeccable,” said Robbins.
“The atmosphere here is fun and staff are
very friendly and helpful. I’m proud to be
a part of such a wonderful team.
She received her Bachelor of Science in
Business Administration from Kansas State
University and Masters of Arts in
Education at Ashford University.
“The FHDC offers a variety of
experiences to individuals of all ages.
From ongoing programs to annual events,
we keep things exciting for you to
repeatedly visit!”
Megan Berry, Development Officer
Megan Berry,
holding the
Marketing
Coordinator
position,
was recently
promoted to the
Development
Officer at the
Discover Center.
“I’ve enjoyed
my job each
and every day at the Flint Hills Discovery
Center,” said Berry. “I’m looking forward
to this new opportunity to be better
engaged with the community.”
Berry, originally from Salina, KS has held
various positions including the Director of
Marketing and Membership Sales at the
Salina Country Club, Gallery Director at
Kansas Wesleyan as well as several jobs in
marketing and communications.
Megan holds both a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Communications/Public
Relations and a Master of Business
Administration degree from Kansas
Wesleyan University.
“I’m thrilled to inform the community
about the next big thing happening at the
FHDC and how they can be a part of it,
said Berry. “From interactive, engaging
exhibitions, to family-friendly events,
there is something for everyone and
we look forward to partnering with many
organizations.”
6 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org August - October 2016

FHDC Foundation
Dave Kendall’s documentary capturing the Flint Hills comes to life
Filming continues in full force as Dave
Kendall’s documentary film work
“Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve:
A Flint Hills Love Story” heads into the
final five months of production.
This highly anticipated film will premier
in November and if you are interested
in seeing some segments of his work,
visit his Facebook page, Prairie Hollow
Productions.
“Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve:
A Flint Hills Love Story” is a project of the
Flint Hills Discovery Center Foundation
and supported by donor funding.
Dave Kendall’s documentary, “Tallgrass
Prairie National Preserve: A Flint Hills
Love Story” will premier in November
2016. (Photo by Michael Henry)
Foundation launches FHDC Youth Education Endowment
On April 16, 2016, at the Friends of the
Flint Hills event honoring Nancy
Kassebaum, the FHDC Foundation
launched an endowment fund.
The fund is managed by the Greater
Manhattan Community Foundation.
The mission is to support youth
educational programing and events
delivered by the Flint Hills Discovery
Center which are designed to inspire
youth to interpret, explore and
preserve the Flint Hills.
The focus of this endowment is to
insure that a continuous stream of funds
is available to sustain the quality youth
programing currently offered by the Flint
Hills Discovery Center.
The current goal is to raise $1,000,000
over a two year period in order to
establish a permanent endowment that
would sustain Flint Hills Discovery
Center youth programing and events
in perpetuity. Funding efforts would
be ongoing after the initial two year
period in order to expand, continue and
improve the Flint Hills Discovery Center
opportunities to educate youth about
this unique region whether they live
in the area or have traveled here to
enjoy the benefits of Manhattan and
the surrounding Flint Hills.
Funds raised will be used to
establish the permanent endowment
fund to support, expand and enhance
the current educational programs
currently delivered by the Flint Hills
Discovery Center to youth. Ninety
percent of the funds will go directly to
the permanent Flint Hills Discovery Center
Youth Educational Endowment.
Each year, five percent of the endowment
fund would be distributed to the
Flint Hills Discovery Center designated
for youth programs. The remaining ten
percent of the funds would go directly
to the Foundation for ongoing operating
and development activities. Such activities
would include further fundraising efforts,
donor recognition and support of special
projects which are compatible with the
Flint Hills Discovery Center and the
Foundation’s missions.
The Foundation invites you join in
this wonderful opportunity to designate
your funding dollars directly to youth
educational programs at the Flint Hills
Discovery Center. You may make your
financial donation as a lump sum or
establish an ongoing pledge. To learn
more about the FHDC Foundation
fundraising opportunities, visit the
FHDC website.
Dedication of the first map of the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie
As part of a pilot program, six USD
490 El Dorado, Kansas schools and Butler
Community College were first to install
the Map exhibits offered to schools
and colleges in the Flint Hills by the
place-based “You Are Here: Flint Hills
Map & Education Program,” a project
of the Flint Hills Discovery Center
Foundation.
On Tuesday, May 3 Sue Givens,
Superintendent of USD 490, El Dorado,
Kansas, dedicated a first-of-its-kind map
of Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie at El Dorado
Middle School.
On Saturday, June 11 Annie Wilson,
Pam Collinge, and Mollie Wold presented
a tent talk about the project at the
Symphony in the Flint Hills. Further
information about the Map Project
can be found on Flint Hills Map &
Education Program Facebook page.
Extensive Flint Hills-related learning
activities for all grades/subjects, for
classroom and outdoors are available
at www.flinthillsdiscovery.org/map.
August - October 2016 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org 7

315 S. 3rd. St. Manhattan, KS 66502 | 785.587.2726 | www.flinthillsdiscovery.org
Shopping
Check out Prairie Lavender Farm products at the FHDC Gift Store!
While out enjoying the nature
of the Flint Hills region this
summer, be sure to protect
your skin from the sun, insects and other
elements with products made from the
natural essential oils of lavender. Lavender
essential oil has been has been utilized for
many functions for centuries. From insect
repellent and burn ointment to
antibacterial and antiseptic, lavender
has been used for its medicinal properties
since the Egyptians 3,500 years ago.
Based in Bennington, Prairie Lavender
Farm produces over 3000 plants. After
harvesting, owner Mike Neustrom dries
the flower buds out before extracting the
essential oils.
“We harvest the bundles of lavender,
dry it, strip the buds and then distill,” said
Neustrom. “It takes about 200 pounds of
buds to get one pound of oil by weight.”
This oil is used to make a wide variety
of products from facial/body care
products all the way to culinary lavender.
“The uses are so many I wouldn’t know
just where to start, but lavender is a
natural antiseptic, analgesic and provides
a calming effect on most people,” said
Neustrom.
Please visit the Gift Store to purchase
Prairie Lavender Farm’s products,
including lip balm, soaps, insect
repellents, sachets and lotions.
Visit the Gift Store to purchase soaps, lotions and so much more!
It’s never too early to book your holiday party!
Call 785.587.2726 to set up a tour today!
8 www.flinthillsdiscovery.org August - October 2016