Take a Walk with Birkenstock

Teddy Roosevelt was surrounded by wealth as a child. In 1880 at the young age of 22, he purchased the initial acreage of Sagamore Hill for $30,000 or roughly 1 million dollars in current dollars. O...

Theodore Roosevelt not only officially named the White House, the White House, he was also the first President who escaped Washington's summer heat to a "Summer White House," which for him was Saga...

A traveling Smithsonian exhibit just opened at the Watkins Museum, here in Lawrence. The exhibit was supposed to take place at Haskell Indian Nations University, also in Lawrence, but federal budge...

The Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff, AZ preserves a marvelous example of the Arts and Crafts movement in architecture. That movement was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, ma...

In 1983 Congress enacted what would become known as the Rails-to-Trails Act. This act made it quicker and easier for concerned citizens to imagine alternate uses to abandoned rail lines, advocate f...

I grew up in Wichita. I couldn't wait to escape to Lawrence to attend KU. That is a typical adolescent's response to their hometown. Over decades my tune changed. I have rediscovered the many good ...

Like most Americans, I love the National Parks. Every year attendance at the National Parks keeps going up. The parks are our shared treasure capable of providing truly magical experiences which ke...

California has the giant redwood trees. India has the Great Banyan Tree. Africa has the baobab tree. New Zealand has the Tāne Mahuta, the giant kauri tree. Not to be outdone, the Great Plains has t...

Two grains of sand met on a deserted beach outside of what is now Minneapolis, Kansas. Iron oxide, calcium carbonate, and pressure cemented their relationship. Other grains of sand followed suit an...