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Stop and see new mural in Dickinson Couny

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Mindy Allen of Mindy’s Murals, who painted the new, vibrant, large-scale mural at the Heritage Center, was pleasantly surprised at what the center operated by the Dickinson County Historical Society has to offer.

“I didn’t realize it was as much as it was,” Allen says, after a tour of the facility prior to painting the mural. “I need to take a moment to really walk through and look at everything a little bit better. It seems like a cool place to stop that was more than what I expected.”

The mural reflects aspects of Dickinson County’s rich history including the C.W. Parker Carousel Company, the Chisholm Trail, cattle town marshal Wild Bill Hickok, a pioneer cabin, agriculture, and the C.L Brown Telephone Company.

“I had heard of the carousel, but I had never been back there to see it, and I didn’t realize it was inside (a structure with openings to outside),” she says. “I was surprised about all of the history about the telephone, I had no idea that was all in there and how large it actually is.”

The mural Allen painted fills the once blank canvass of the Heritage Center’s new Heritage Hall addition and increases the visibility of local history that can be found inside the Heritage Center’s museum and in The Village behind the building, according to Dickinson County Historical Society Director Austin Anders.

“The marketing committee was looking into ways to give Heritage Hall more curb appeal and a mural was the answer,” Anders says. “The front of the building looked very plain, but now is a colorful piece of public art that displays county history.”

Marketing Committee chairman and Dickinson County Historical Society board trustee Rod Riffel says Mindy Allen of Mindy’s Murals was selected as the artist based on her previous work in the Abilene area and her vision for the mural matching that of the committee’s.

“We wanted it to be an educational tool that reveals our county’s story by focusing on the highlights of what we are noted for, the 1901 hand-carved wooden carousel that visitors can ride, our new Farm Toy Museum that represents our agriculture history, and our telephone exhibit,” says Riffel. “We also wanted to honor our cattle town era, with Abilene being the end of the Chisholm Trail and Wild Bill Hickok serving as town marshal, and our pioneer heritage with our log cabin. Of course the Village behind the museum also includes a barn, one-room schoolhouse, early-day telephone office, and Agriculture Building filled with early-day farm machinery, a barbed wire exhibit, and transportation vehicles.”

The new addition to Abilene’s murals would not have been possible without the support of the Community Foundation of Dickinson County and the Dickinson County Historical Society’s board of trustees that “allowed this dream to come true,” adds Riffel.

The newly-completed Heritage Hall is a multi-use area that can be used by the Historical Society and the community for events up to 85 people, according to Anders. To reserve Heritage Hall, please phone 785.263.2681.

An open house for the new Farm Toy Museum, Heritage Hall, and the mural will be on Oct. 5 at the Heritage Center. The Farm Toy Museum is a new building that houses a variety of toy farm equipment sizes 1/64 scale and up. 

Parallel Views

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Guest Columnist
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Ralph Williams
Guest Columnist

I am going to take a paragraph and introduce myself to the readers of the Rural Messenger. I am from the western part of Reno County, live on a small farm with my wife, 3 house cats. It is quiet here this morning two miles south of Langdon and one and a half west on the South side.
Living on Parallel Road you get to see who had a good spelling program in school whenever they ask for your address. Some will write it and go on, others write par then look at us and/or ask about the rest. Some will write it how they think and not ask. Parallel road is also known as the correction line.
As this area was surveyed, the crews surveyed from both north and south, meeting here. They figured out the surveys were off nearly one-half mile east and west, one quarter mile north and south. Rather than start over it was decided to keep it as was. All our north-south roads along the correction line have “T” intersections across the state. The first row of sections south of parallel are one and a quarter long north to south resulting in a long quarter section in the middle of each. For someone who doesn’t know the area it is difficult to navigate to an address here let alone something with no address. Driving from Pratt or Hutchinson makes it worse since highway 61 seems like east and west.
As a service tech in the ag equipment world I have been told where to go many times, pun intended. Directions might read “north to the correction line on 281 east one and a quarter, south one quarter southeast to the well, engine has a miss.” You won’t find that with GPS. I have been a direction person as long as I can remember, getting directions mixed up in a city drives me insane, that being a short trip.
This leads me to using directions inside as well: it’s on the north side of the couch, push the front of a tractor to the north a bit when joining an engine to a clutch housing. I had one helper say “Don’t give me direct ions in a building.” I feel sorry for ones who don’t know directions well it seems like a handicap. Don’t get me wrong I have been lost many times but bailed myself out eventually. I have been sent to one machine with the next repair being four miles north from that location east five miles two north and a quarter back east without benefit or signs at intersections. I have called for parts in those instances having to tell them to let drive a bit I don’t even know where I am, when I figure it out I will give you directions to meet me.
I had a young man with me once who was pretty sure we were going to have to camp for the night, me being me, I told him it would be okay, it would be a nice evening under the stars and we could start a fire with the cutting torch. That didn’t help his anxiety a bit. We kept driving east and found our way back to 281, all ended well.
I can’t win in towns with directions but get along pretty well out in the country. We were coming back from the state FFA convention in Manhattan Ks., I was navigating and Enola was driving when I missed the little intersection at I 70 and I 135. About 5 miles away from the turn I told everyone in the vehicle we had missed our turn, resulting in four cell phones switched to navigation and a scolding from my wife. We had a friend and classmate to my son with us, with me being the only one sure we would get home. I got out the paper map and went to plot a course while the rest fretted with their phones. I told Enola we will be ok as long as we head south on the first paved road off I 70. We went south for a while then had to go either east or west, I chose west thinking that would get us closer in line with
Langdon. We saw a few towns we hadn’t been in Geneseo for one, we zigged and zagged always finding another road south with me saying as long as we keep going south we will make it. My wife and the extra boy with us seemed concerned. I told them we just gotta keep heading south. Enola finally snapped “Just because we go south doesn’t mean we’ll get home.” A few miles of dirt road were involved at one point which made the doubters even more concerned. I clung to the paper map, darned if we didn’t wind up at Alden. The woman in the phones had given up hope trying to tell us our route and adjourned to a virtual bar I guess a few miles and turns back. The neighbor kid was sure we weren’t getting home that evening, even though he lived just two miles west of us. Of course, from it was indeed straight south to Parallel Road. Our running joke is as long as we keep going south after that adventure. One thing for sure, no matter where you’re at there you are.

A Likely Story: Person of Interest

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Guest Columnist
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Rural Messenger

Roger Clark
Guest Columnist

I read a news story about a guy arrested for murder, identified only as ‘person of interest’ now a ‘resident’ in a local county jail. I mean uh, correctional facility. After just a little digging, of course, we learned the sheriff was newly woke, and recently appointed by a blue state governor during a period of skyrocketing crime. Of course.
Well, I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping politics out of my writing, yet done a lousy one of keeping out the words. Yet I read news stories every day that frame even murder in phrases of political correctness. Are you going to believe me, scream members of the media, or your lying eyes?
My favorite examples, of course, were the ‘peaceful protests’ last summer, taking place directly in front of burning buildings. Portland, Seattle, St. Louis, and even in my hometown of Minneapolis, correspondents could barely hide their glee as the Uptown District erupted in flames. Around the corner, between pallets of invisible bricks, Antifa was burning the American flag. And why? Because they could, without consequence or remorse.
Torch the rainbow flag of the LGBTQ community, however, and be convicted of a hate crime. Question the Marxist motives of the BLM organization, and be victimized by their cancel culture. Doubt out loud the results of our 2016 elections, and be ostracized as a white supremacist, even if you’re black as Larry Elder.
There are, however, new terms popping up quicker than REI’s polyester mansions for the homeless. These people are now called “outdoor urban dwellers”, coming to a park near you any day now. And that bearded guy you chased out of the ladies’ restroom last week is not a pervert, but just expressing his personal gender re-assignment.
Those metropolitan range rovers videotaped last month filling garbage bags with drugstore merchandise were not criminals, but “irregular shoppers”, and were not stoned, but “chemically inconvenienced”. They were not being dishonest, just ethically disoriented, and not a societal failure, but non-traditional successes. I’m sure you could find them, even without a warrant, at any San Francisco County flea market.
That tubby guy you saw at Flying J last week wearing flipflops and a skirt wasn’t non-conforming. He was a visually unfavorable metabolic overachiever. What’s more, he was not too lazy for pants, just motivationally deficient. I hope from now on there’s no confusion about this!If your Nike Lebron XVlll’s are still wet from the crossing the Rio Grande, it doesn’t mean you’re an illegal immigrant. We’re told you are an “undocumented worker” seeking economic justice, transiting with the help of ‘bilingual travel agents’, not cartel coyotes. Taliban and Al Quida are no longer terrorist cells, but ‘civil servants’ dedicated to a kinder and gentler form of destruction, disruption, violence and domination.
I think what’s more important than political correctness is honesty. We don’t gossip about our neighbors. Everything we say about them is true, even if they ain’t no good. My granddaughter is ‘outspoken’, not bossy, and her little twin brothers are just ‘behaviorally challenged’, not little rascals.
Speaking of bosses, our dispatchers are now called ‘driver managers’ and they need to know where we are. God may know where you are, and you may know where you are. But if your manager doesn’t know where you are, you had better be on good terms with God. And trust me on this, they don’t care what flag you’re flying, or if you’re a gender free, economically marginalized, energetically declined, or politically deplorable Person Of Interest.

Insight: Modeling Lives Of Service

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Guest Columnist
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Jackie Mundt,
Pratt County farmer and rancher

A milestone birthday earlier this month got me thinking about my parents and what their lives looked like at my age, which is vastly different from my life. In reflecting on the differences, it was really to see how my parents’ choices in their 20s and 30s have had a foundational impact on who I am and what my life is like today.
My parents involvement in one organization, which I was never a member of myself, more than any other created lifelong friendships and influenced how I interact with my community and the world. Throughout my childhood, my parents were members of the local Jaycee’s organization. In a town of 800 people, the Jaycees chapter had 20 to 30 active members for the 15 years my parents were involved until they aged out.
Service was never a chore even when it was picking up trash for Adopt-a-Highway, hosting blood drives and youth BB gun safety classes. They made service fun and meaningful through activities building elaborate floats to show patriotism for the Fourth of July parade and a community haunted house each Halloween. One of the most lasting legacies of the group is the Heart & Sole Road Race held every July 3, which brings hundreds of runners to their small community to help fund local scholarships and equipment for the EMS and fire department, even though they haven’t been an official organization in over 20 years.
My parents and their friends made service look cool and fun. I still get the same excitement I felt as a kid about raising money for the community through Oktoberfest, meeting new people while serving on the chamber board and judging at a 4-H or FFA contest. There is nothing quite as magical as working with friends who share your values to make a difference in your community.
A key component of the fun for me was that everyone brought their kids to everything. We all grew up together, having fun, helping when we could and watching our parents model how to build a great community. My oldest friend’s parents were members, too. Becky and I met at about 2 years old and spent much of our childhood playing together at meetings and events. As we got older we joined Girl Scouts, 4-H, Pop Warner, show choir, FFA, school plays and a dozen other activities together. I don’t remember a time in my life without her friendship and recognize the blessing of having a lifelong friend like her.
The family friendships we built were enduring too. I recently joined my parents at the lake for an annual camping trip started almost 40 years ago as a Jaycee activity. The group has grown and changed but there are still a gaggle of children of all ages enjoying tubing on the lake, candy bingo and s’mores on the campfire. The generation of grandchildren who attend now are scattered around several states but I know they are making lifelong friends and memories.
Some day when all the grandkids look back at the annual camping trip, I hope they recognize camping was more than just fun with friends. It was an exceptional model of lifelong friends having fun, building community and joyfully serving those around them.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.

“Reduced Chance of Life” EPD

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Guest Columnist
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Trent Loos
Columnist

I clearly remember the very first presentation I sat through at a livestock meeting where the presenter was talking about a “Social License” to produce food for people. Honestly, at the time, I was mostly falling prey to the nonsense of thinking that if we don’t do things a certain way to please consumers regarding how we produce their food, they may tell us to quit. Twenty years later I realize that was actually the food Nazi’s of the world implementing total control rather than consumers sending signals about preferences. The experts (farmers and ranchers) are not going to make progress if we listen to the profiteering cubicle dwellers instead of the folks who actually get their hands dirty doing the job.
That brings me to the world of “climate change” where there is no greater example of the controlling Nazi’s of the world trying to shape the future of humanity than by implementing measures of food and fuel production that are not grounded in reality. In Oct. of 2011, I was speaking in Queensland, Australia to a group of 300 cattle feeders just as the Australian government started implementing a “carbon tax” on cattle owners to curb climate change. In fact, their tax was based on Dr. Pierre Gerber’s UN model that had already been proven to be wrong. Yet when the official who spoke after me addressed that topic I had pointed out, her response to cattlemen was, “we know it is flawed but it seems like a good place to start.”
Hey! I have news for you. The entire world is still attacking cattle owners for the methane and CO2 emissions from cows based on that flawed model that wasn’t about improving the environment but rather about eliminating ruminant animals. If you don’t believe me, just ask the dairy and beef producers in the European countries who have been told point blank that they must deplete their cow herds by 1/3 in order to improve the climate.
I hear the board members of the American Angus Association shouting at me, “Yes Trent; that is why we are going to take $4.85 million from the Bezos Earth Fund/Global Methane Hub to prove that cows are the solution and not the problem.” Now I am confused. Are we trying to prove the cow is not a methane contributor or are we trying to determine which cows are genetically more efficient in grass consumption based on an indicator that suggests lower methane means less grass consumed?
I am going to tell you straight out, getting in bed with people who have invested in ending your life is simply the quickest was to die. Do you know how many actual studies have been released since the flawed data from Dr. Pierre Gerber was released in 2006? To be honest, I don’t either, but it was quite easy to find this from the University of Manitoba that was a direct result of the big lie.
Greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian beef production in 1981 as compared with 2011. Link to full research report. CSIRO PUBLISHING | Animal Production Science
In summary it says: The efficiency and environmental footprint of beef production in Canada have improved significantly in the last 30 years. Researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge found that producing each unit of Canadian beef in 2011 compared to 1981:
– used 17% less water,
– required 29% less breeding stock, 27% fewer harvested cattle and 24% less land,
– reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 15% and ammonia emissions by 20%.
Yet even with this data clearly available to the public for the past 14 years, who references it? Certainly no one who has invested in meat alternates and is trying to kill cattle ownership. Instead of American Angus Association board of directors saying, “We screwed up” and giving the money back, they have doubled down on this efficiency rhetoric which also doesn’t hold water. All you need to do is look at the announcement on the Global Methane Hub website to see how they positioned this partnership in April 2025.
“Reducing methane from cattle is one of the most elegant solutions we have to slow climate change,” said Dr. Andy Jarvis, Director of the Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund. “Thanks to collaboration with the Global Methane Hub, we’re backing an effort that uses age-old selection practices to identify and promote naturally low-emitting cattle – locking in climate benefits for generations to come.”
I can’t bring to light only this decision by the Angus folks when the University of Nebraska received $2.3 million from this Bezos Earth Fund, along with a long list of other research institutions around the world. As an interesting side note, the one person in the world that has been studying ruminant emissions for all 25 years that I have known him, Dr. Frank Mitloerner at the University of CA in Davis, was NOT contacted by the American Angus Association about any of this.
In closing, the most important point I want to make is that all living things create emissions that enable the cycle of life. Maybe the Angus folks should just call this new genetic parameter the “Reduced Chance of Living” EPD.

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