The Ball of Twine and Other Scintillating Tourist Spots

 

It was raining when we got to Cawker City, Kansas, last week. But I still got out of the car to take photos of the World's Largest Ball of Sisal Twine. 

 

Actually, this was our second trip to visit the Ball of Twine. It was also a stop on a long-ago vacation with Jill and Brent. Let's just say that vacation was ... memorable. I have never claimed to be either a camping enthusiast or a fisherman. I didn't grow up doing either of those things. 

 

Usually, Randy and the kids had their own camping adventures. They'd visit some convenience store situated near a lake and they'd load up on Oreos and other delicacies. Poker 101 was part of the curriculum for these educational journeys. 

 

But for this particular long-ago trip, I consented to go along - mainly because we weren't sleeping on the ground. Even at that age, my back couldn't take that. Randy booked a "cabin" at nearby Waconda Lake. It was ... rustic. It was more like a trailer that hadn't been updated with decor or repairs since it came off the factory line many, many moons before. And, of course, it required bringing and fixing all the meals. Yay ... what a vacation! (?)

 

I'm always willing to hold a fishing pole. I may have a book in the other hand, but I'll hold the pole. We all tried valiantly to catch fish. We even had a guide. 

 

And we didn't catch one.

 

We did catch a glimpse of Cawker City's Ball of Twine. It's still a vacation that the kids talk about. You can imagine what kind of talk. I snapped the photos and texted them: Remember the BEST vacation EVER?

 

Just in case you haven't seen it yourself, here are the stats:

 

At 17,320 lbs, 40 foot circumference, and more than 7,938,709 of sisal twine, the Cawker City Community Club is the official owner/caretaker of the ball of twine. Each year a Twine-a-Thon is held in conjunction with the annual Cawker City picnic and parade, so the ball never stops growing. Frank Stoeber started the twine ball in 1953 on his farm and by 1957 it weighed about 5,000 lbs. 

Snapping the photos gave me an excuse to get out of the car. We were on a 5-hour trek from Topeka to Kearney, Nebraska. Earlier in the week, we'd driven from Topeka to Omaha for a short vacation with the girls. (More on that to come.) We then took them back to Topeka, watched a tennis lesson and stayed the night before getting in the car again to go to Kearney for the Great Plains United Methodist Church annual conference, where I was our church's lay representative. 

Not long after our brief stop in Cawker City, we started seeing signs for the Home on the Range cabin. Neither of us had ever been to this historic cabin. After a lot of rainfall in the area, we weren't sure whether the road off the highway would be firm enough to travel. But it was well-graveled, though I was glad we didn't meet another car. 

By the time we got there, the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful day. And the cabin is in an idyllic setting among trees and near a creek. 

It was easy to imagine how Dr. Brewster Higley VI conjured up the words to a poem he called "My Western Home" back in 1871.

At the time, Higley was living on a dugout that he built on the banks of the West Beaver Creek in Smith County, Kansas. Not long after, with the help of a few friends, he constructed a cabin in 1872. Dr. Higley presented the poem to his friend Dan Kelley who set it to music and then gave it to John Harlan, the leader of a family band that included Kelley. The song “Home on the Range” was born.

 

The plaque says: Dr. Higley enjoyed sitting outside his cabin, writing, meditating and simply listening to the sounds along his beloved West Beaver Creek. 

 

There were times he would play his violin with the music enjoyed by those living on the Jones Homestead just south of Home on the Range.

The location of the historic Higley cabin was approved for listing on the National Historical Register in 1973. The cabin site is 57 acres of grassland on the 240-acre homestead. The crop land is rented to a private operator. Net income from the landlord's share of the farming operation is invested back into the site. No individuals benefit financially from the site. The entire site is privately owned and managed by the Peoples Heartland Foundation, a 501c3 charity.

The restoration of the cabin was done in 2013, but the management of the historic site have even bigger hopes and dreams. They'd like to build a $2.5 million amphitheatre on site. As with most projects, funding is the obstacle. They have built a new bridge and have created a walking path named in honor of Pete and Ellen Rust, who moved to the farm in 1936 and finally attained full ownership in 1950. The Rusts and everyone in the Highland community knew the cabin was built by Dr. Brewster Higley VI, yet it continued to be used as a chicken house until 1947, when Home on the Range became the state song of Kansas.

 

It was during the following years that the Rusts had several chances to profit from the sale of the cabin, but in every instance, declined the offers because the buyers planned to move the cabin off site. They established the basis for the cabin staying forever on the site for the enjoyment of all who visit. The Cabin is open for visitors daily from daylight to dark. There's no admission charge, though there is a collection box, if visitors wish to make a donation.  

We thought it provided a nice little break from the drive and were glad we took the time to stop. From Athol, Kansas, it's 1 mile west on US 36, then 8 miles north on Home of the Range Highway (K-8). Turn left on 90 road for a about a mile down a narrow gravel road.

My Western Home

 (also known as Home on the Range) 

 by Dr. Brewster Higley

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:

Home, home on the range! 

Where the deer and the antelope play. 

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, 

And the sky is not clouded all day.

 

There are several other verses. One I particularly like is this one:

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,
With the light of the twinkling stars
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceed that of ours.

For one of the verses, I believe the poet took some liberties. There may be some hills in Smith County, but there are no mountains. And I had to look up curlews. Yes, it's a bird. 

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love the wild curlew’s shrill scream;
The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks
That graze on the mountains so green.

However, as I stood at the cabin site, this next verse definitely sang true:

The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,
The zephyrs so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azures so bright.

I may make light of a big Ball of Twine (though I definitely admire Cawker City's efforts for a little tourism). But I, like Dr. Higley, would not exchange my Home on the Range.

On our way home from Kearney, we took part in a little Nebraska tourism. We stopped at Runza for lunch. A runza is what we in Kansas call a bierock - hamburger, cabbage and seasonings inside yeast dough.  

I'll have more from our trip to Omaha with the girls to come.