Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1995
Abstract
In Kansas during the past two decades, county historical societies and local community groups have initiated a trend that deserves attention-the establishment and support of small historic sites. Conceived with little aspiration of becoming the next Williamsburg, Plimoth Plantation, or Conner Prairie, they are endeavors by small communities to preserve elements of their traditional built environment and identify themselves with their respective pasts. With the community itself as its essential audience, each site celebrates a historical identity of success, harmony, and stability. Kansas's small historic sites are assembled landscapes that represent local community values, but in which rural and urban definitions merge and concepts of time and distance collapse.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:1 (Winter 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.