I’m not a very opinionated man, but I do have a few annoyances. I try hard to keep these “pet peeves” on their leashes, but occasionally they break free.

Bad signs really irritate me; hard to read, too small, homemade looking, bad signs! For instance, a bad “for sale” sign might as well say” I really don’t want to sell this, but my wife won’t let it stay, so after you’ve read this sign, please just drive away.”

Speaking of bad signs, a major “pet peeve” of mine is trespassing and hunting without permission, and with the myriad of fall hunting seasons already underway, allow me to offer some pertinent information. I am a hunter and I have been a land owner, so I’ve been on both sides of this “fence” so to speak. Are you land owners and sportsmen aware that regulating trespassing and hunting on private property DOES NOT even require a “bad sign” but in fact, requires no sign at all?

In Kansas, law requires hunters to gain land owner permission even on unmarked property. Let me also note the difference between “hunting with permission only” and “hunting with WRITTEN permission only.” “Hunting with permission only” allows for any form of permission, written, verbal or over the phone, and requires the land owner’s signature on any ticket or formal complaint issued by the conservation officer. “Hunting with WRITTEN permission only” is satisfied only by permission in writing, and gives law enforcement personnel free rein to issue citations, and /or make arrests with no further authorization.

By the way, land owners, the fish and game dept. furnishes both the signs and permission slips, at no cost, for this type of posting. I’m sure we hunters have all seen the bright purple paint on fence posts and old tires along property lines. These purple markers along property boundaries also mean “hunting with WRITTEN permission only,” and corresponding compliance is required. The local conservation officer told me that trespassing violations are misdemeanors, so fines are determined and levied by the judge. A few years ago in McPherson County, the minimum was two hundred fifty dollars plus court costs of ninety-eight dollars, and could easily have run up to five hundred dollars depending on circumstances and the judge’s decision.

We hunt mostly deer and turkeys, and trap coyotes, raccoons and beavers. Lots of land owners, especially farmers, are willing to let respectful, responsible hunters help them control deer, turkey, predator and beaver populations on their land. In my assessment, there are very few reasons why hunting and trapping permission is denied. One is because the owner wants to reserve the privilege for themselves and their family. Another is because someone else has “beaten us to the punch.” There are also land owners who simply do not want game animals harvested. These are all legitimate reasons we hunters must respect. The explanation that makes me cringe is when a land owner denies hunting or trapping permission because of a bad experience with previous hunters or trappers. Trespassing, cut or broken-down fences, gates left open, muddy ruts in fields, indiscriminate shooting and other disrespectful actions toward the owner or his property; I’ve seen or experienced them all! Sadly, these actions by a few of our comrades adversely affect all hunters in the end.

Remember, NO SIGN of any kind is required to keep unwelcome hunters off your land, nor to have them prosecuted for trespassing! I was once denied permission to hunt deer during firearms season on a man’s property because years before he and his wife had dodged bullets whizzing through the trees as they attempted to cut firewood. Evidently the shooter had never before heard the sound a chainsaw makes…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Who is the only native Kansan ever to be elected President or Vice President? (If you guessed Dwight D. Eisenhower, you would be wrong. Although Eisenhower claimed Abilene, Kansas as his home, he was born during his family’s brief stay in Texas.) Who is the first Native American Indian ever to be elected President or Vice President? The answer to that question is the same as the correct answer to the first one: Charles Curtis is the first native Kansan and first Native American Indian to be elected to the nation’s second-highest office. His life is an amazing example of how education and hard work created a rags-to-riches success story. Thanks to the Kansas Historical Society and the U.S. Senate website for this information.

Charles Curtis was born in north Topeka. His father was Orren Curtis and his mother was Ellen Pappan who was one-quarter Kaw Indian. Charles was the great-grandson of White Plume, a Kansa-Kaw chief who had offered assistance to the Lewis and Clark expedition. White Plume’s daughter married a French-Canadian trader, so Charles grew up speaking French and Kansa before he learned English.

His mother died in 1863 at about the time his father left to fight in the Civil War. Charles was raised by his grandparents at the Kaw Reservation near the rural community of Council Grove, population 2,051 people. Now, that’s rural.

Young Charley learned to ride Indian ponies bareback. He became a successful jockey. He was also the hero of a cross-country run to warn Topeka about upcoming Cheyenne Indian raids.

After his grandfather’s death in 1873, Charles was headed to Indian territory. His grandmother advised him to get a formal education instead. “I mounted my pony and with my belongings in a flour sack, returned to Topeka and school,” Curtis recounted. “No man or boy every received better advice, it was the turning point in my life.”

In Topeka, he attended school while living with his other grandmother, a strong-minded woman. It was said of her that “she regarded being a Methodist and a Republican as essential for anyone who expected to go to heaven.”

Charles did well in school and went on to study law, supporting himself by working as a custodian and driving a horse-drawn taxi. When he had no customers, he would stop under streetlamps to read his law books.

After being admitted to the bar, the young lawyer opened his own firm, invested in real estate, and married Anna Baird. He was elected Shawnee County Attorney. Known as a law-and-order prosecutor, he won an upset victory over Democrat and Populist opponents for a U.S. House seat in 1892.

Curtis rose through the ranks in Congress. He was elected to the Senate where he ultimately served as majority leader. A strong advocate of farmers, he sponsored numerous bills related to agriculture and to Indian affairs. He was a master tactician who built strong relationships with both the conservative and progressive wings of his party. One senator described Curtis as “a great reconciler, a walking political encyclopedia, and one of the best political poker players in America.”

At the 1928 Republican convention, Charles Curtis was nominated for Vice President with Herbert Hoover. They were elected in a landslide but defeated for re-election in 1932.

After his term concluded, Curtis practiced law in Washington and continued his interest in politics. He liked to tell audiences that he was “one eighth Kaw and one hundred percent Republican.”

Curtis died in 1936 and is buried next to his wife Anna in a Topeka cemetery. The Charles Curtis State Office Building in downtown Topeka is named in his honor.

When the Curtis gravesite was rededicated, Vice President Dick Cheney sent a letter lauding Curtis as a “champion of the farmer and an advocate for women’s suffrage” and as a strong supporter of legislation granting citizenship to Native Americans.

Who was the first native Kansan and Native American Indian to be elected Vice President? It was Charles Curtis, whose education and hard work would make a difference and transform his life. We can be proud to claim him as a Kansan.

By JOHN P. TRETBAR

Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $46.25 per barrel, after dropping fifty cents on Friday.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports thirty new well-completions for the week. Eight of those were in eastern Kansas and 22 west of Wichita, including one in Barton County. So far this year, operators in Kansas have completed 1,028 wells. That’s down from the 1,141 reported at the end of the third quarter last year.

Operators have 16 new drilling permits across Kansas this week, 741 so far this year. That’s a little over half of the third-quarter total last year. There are eight new permits east of Wichita, and eight in Western Kansas, including one each in Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties.

The oil-patch in the U.S. continues its record-level production. On Wednesday, The Energy Information Administration reported the second-largest weekly production total ever, 12.472 million barrels per day for the week ending September 20. That’s up from the week before by nearly 50,000 barrels per day. The record of 12.5 million barrels per day was set August 23.

The Kansas Geological Survey has released updated production figures through June of this year, with a statewide total of 16.68 million barrels, or just over 92,000 barrels per day. Barton County operators pumped more than 816,000 barrels through June, while Ellis County produced 1.26 million barrels. In Russell County, total oil production through June was over 754,000 barrels. The total in Stafford County was nearly 437,000.

Activity in the Texas patch declined in the third quarter, according to a survey of energy executives by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Houston Chronicle reports abundant crude supplies and slowing global demand led energy companies to pull rigs out of service and cut jobs.

Refineries imported about 6.4 million barrels per day of crude oil last week, down more than 600,000 barrels per day. The four-week average for U.S. imports is 13.1 percent less than the same four week period a year ago.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles increased last week by 2.4 million barrels. The government said that at 419.5 million barrels, inventories are rising but remain at the five-year average.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports a slight increase in its weekly Kansas rig report. There are ten active rigs in the eastern half of the state, up one, and 29 west of Wichita, also up one. Drilling is underway at two wells in Barton County and one in Ellis County. Operators are preparing to spud new wells at one lease in Ellis County, one in Russell County and one in Stafford County.

Baker Hughes reported a big drop in its weekly Rotary Rig Count Friday. Across the U.S. there were 860 active rigs, down six oil rigs and down two seeking natural gas. The count in Texas dropped by five rigs.

Activity in the Texas patch declined in the third quarter, according to a survey of energy executives by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Houston Chronicle reports abundant crude supplies and slowing global demand led energy companies to pull rigs out of service and cut jobs.

Oil-by-rail traffic dropped nearly ten percent in the latest weekly tally from the Association of American Railroads. Operators filled 11,862 rail tanker cars with petroleum and petroleum products during the week that ended September 21. As total freight-train traffic continues to decline, the oil-by-rail weekly total is down 9.7% from a year ago, marking the first such decline in recent memory. The cumulative, year-to-date total remains 17% above the same figure a year ago. Amid the railroad industry’s broad decline, only one freight category, chemicals, showed an increase over a year ago.

Another huge acquisition for Texas-based Energy Transfer is expected to dramatically increase the pipeline and processing company’s scale and connectivity. The company will buy SemGroup of Tulsa in a stock-cash-and debt deal valued at over five billion dollars. The announcement last week said both firms will continue to operate separately until early next year when the transaction closes.

A federal judge has blocked enforcement of some new laws in South Dakota that were passed with the aim of preventing disruptive demonstrations against the Keystone pipeline expansion. A lawsuit alleges that the law chills protected speech. In issuing a preliminary injunction halting several provisions of the legislation, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol said the plaintiffs are likely to win most of their challenges.

Saudi Arabia has a new energy minister, and for the first time he’s a member of the royal family. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is the half-brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and is the first member of the royal family to hold the job. In his first public appearance as minister, the prince signaled no radical change in Saudi oil policy.