Kansas, Wichita - Thursday, October 22, 2015 - Old Cowtown Museum

On Thursday morning we headed to Wichita with David and Lisa to explore Old Town.  We didn’t find too much to explore L.  Online we saw all kinds of comments about great shops and restaurants – we did find a nice restaurant for lunch and then we moved on.

 

 

The most interesting thing we saw was this “ghost sign” that apparently is not always visible.

 

A few blocks away was the Coleman Company Museum and Outlet.  These arches denote where The Coleman Company stood from 1900 – 1996.  The company evolved from producing lighting products to providing products that served our military and has created outdoor memories for many generations.  It was the first company to produce goods labeled “made in Wichita, Kansas, USA”.

 

 

The museum displayed all kinds of old Coleman products – we have owned and used a lot of these.

I didn’t realize Coleman ever made waffle irons, irons and toasters.

This mantle maker was retired after 50 years of service.  Coleman is the sole remaining mantle maker in the U.S. and Canada producing more than 80,000 mantles each day.

 

 

The Old Cowtown Museum is a must see destination in Wichita if you are interested in history.  We’ve toured several “wild west towns” and I think this one had more buildings than any we have seen yet.  This statue, “Coming Thru the Rye” by Frederic Remington sits outside the entrance to the museum.

Downtown Wichita and the Arkansas River (not much more than a trickle right now) were visible when we stepped outside of the visitor’s center and gift shop.

The information on the Heller Cabin states that it is high quality construction with hand hewn half dovetail log construction.  This 1869 cabin is believed to be one of the few remaining settlement structures in Kansas.

The Heller Cabin served as a trading post.

As we walked along the sidewalk leading to the main part of Old Cowtown we noted that one of the important facts displayed about Wichita is that White Castle began here in 1921.  David tells us that there is no White Castle in Wichita now, the closest one is somewhere near Kansas City.

As I was looking at this chuck wagon I realized that this was the predecessor of the current RV kitchen I use every day.

A look down the main street of Old Cowtown Museum

The Nunger House is believed to be the oldest house in Wichita.  It was originally built about a mile from where it is now located in the museum.  Mr. Nunger used the “public room” of this house for fur trading with the Indians, land sales transactions with the new settlers, a hotel, a post office, a judge’s chambers, a hospital, the site for the Episcopal Church, the coroner’s office and a public meeting place.

Mrs. Nunger was probably kept pretty busy in this kitchen being hospitable to all of the people Mr. Nunger had coming and going.

David looks like he is trying to make a point to some imaginary students in the schoolhouse.

There was a row of tiny desks for the preschoolers and a row for each of grades one through four.  Lisa decided that the second grade desks looked “just right”.

David couldn’t resist the swing outside.

The funeral parlor was decorated for Halloween and really kind of creepy.  I did want to note the workmanship in the woodwork, pretty amazing when you realize it was all handmade.

We stepped into the newspaper office and were allowed to make our own business cards.

The fabric store had some of the most wonderful display cases.

You could get everything from paint to cigars in the pharmacy.  Some more great display cases.

The Meat Market was down a side street.  Based on advertising, fresh oysters must have been a big deal.

 

 

The Grain Elevator was at the end of the side street next to the railroad tracks.

Across from the Meat Market was the Dance Hall.  The floor was really smooth indicating that a lot of good times went on there.  I couldn’t get David and Lisa to take a spin around the floor.

Beautiful chandelier from the Dance Hall.

The Saloon was built in 1885 and housed the Rockford Town Hall in El Paso (now Derby), KS.  It was moved to Cowtown in 1966.

David and Greg bought us ladies some refreshments in the Saloon.

Another side street was a “residential” area.  This house was my favorite.  It belonged to the editor of the newspaper.

Before we downsized and moved into our motor coach we had a marble topped table very similar to this one, ours was rectangular instead of round but the legs were almost identical.

Our big outing today was our two mile walk around Lemon Park and dinner with David and the kids.