By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Area historical military forts are an important part of Kansas history, and a local filmmaker hopes his new documentary will shine a light on the lesser-known, but equally important Fort Harker in Ellsworth County.

“It’s a documentary on Kansas history, specifically a frontier military post called Fort Harker,” said filmmaker and owner of Post Rock Studios of Kansas Steve Stults. “A lot of people have heard of Fort Hays, Fort Larned, Fort Dodge, Fort Riley and Leavenworth, but very rarely do people ever talk about, or have even heard of, Fort Harker.”

It was an important military post during the American expansion west, he said and like Fort Hays provided escorts along the Santa Fe Trail.

“It turned out to be a very important supply depot,” Stults said serving as a way station for convoys between Fort Riley and Fort Larned and a supply depot for forts west of the Mississippi River, especially in Kansas.

“It was a major supply hub for the area,” he said. “It was an incredibly important military post.”

As such an important center for military activity in the post-civil war area, the fort had many notable military figures.

“Custer was there, Wild Bill Hickok was there and a lot of other big generals,” Stults said. Philip Sheridan also spent some time at the post.

The fort shares a similar history to Fort Hays, starting as Fort Ellsworth, a flood forced the fort to relocate to higher ground and was renamed in honor of General Charles Garrison Harker, who died in the American Civil War.

“The documentary starts at the very beginning,” Stults said, taking viewers from before Fort Ellsworth was even built and showing the American expansion west.

The film also shows the Native American side of the conflict, as they were pushed west and began to fight back.

“It encompasses everything,” Stults said.

The film was commissioned by the Ellsworth County Historical Society, which oversees three of the remaining four buildings left from the 83 that comprised the fort in what is now the town of Kanopolis.

Greg Heller, Fort Harker historian, wrote the script.

“It took two years,” Stults said, from conception to final product, with many script edits and filming that took Stults and volunteers to historical reenactments at other forts.

Those forts all have connections to Fort Harker, he said.

He hopes his film can raise Fort Harker into the upper echelon of historical forts that are much better known by the public.

“If you like Kansas history, then this is a documentary for you,” he said. “It not just Fort Harker, but it’s central Kansas and all of Kansas and into Colorado as well.”

A presentation of “Fort Harker: Gateway Post to the Frontier” is set for Sunday, Oct. 13, at 3 p.m. at Messiah Lutheran Church, 2000 Main.

Another presentation will be hosted at the Ellsworth Jr./Sr. High school performing arts center on Oct. 20.

The film is currently available on DVD online here or can be purchased at the Ellsworth County Historical Society.

More information about Fort Harker can be found at the Ellsworth County Historical Society’s website, www.ellsworthcountykansashistory.org.

Photo courtesy Post Rock Studios of Kansas

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

After a season of fighting with Mother Nature to get events on the track — including the cancellation of two key events after a massive storm destroyed buildings and pushed the grandstands off of their foundations — the Rolling Plains Motorspeedway roared back to life for the 13th Fall Nationals.

A total of 257 race teams from 14 states including California, Wyoming, Texas and Arkansas and drivers from Canada were on hand for the two days of racing that started Friday.

But as if to say “not so fast,” Mother Nature once again intervened as the night’s events were cut short by rain.

Racing resumed early Saturday and ran for almost 12 hours, bringing disappointment for last year’s winner and national IMCA points leader in the Stock and Modified classes, Jordan Grabouski of Beatrice, Neb.

Before the feature events, Grabouski was feeling good about his chances.

“We qualified good,” he said. “I think we worked really hard in the offseason last winter on our new modified program. The thing has been crazy good.”

But Grabouski knows things can change quickly in a race car.

“Everything’s clicking, but it can go in the other way in a big hurry,” he said. “You never know when your luck is going to run out.”

For him, that luck seemed to run out Saturday.

After leading the entire qualifier in the number 30 stock car and starting from the second position during the feature, Grabouski looked to be in position to win.

He quickly moved into first after the green flag dropped, but would get pushed back to third by lap 10 and would hit the wall, bringing out a caution and ending his night in the stock car.

After the restart, Mike Nichols, Harlan, Iowa, driving the 163 would move into the top spot after starting from ninth and hold it for the win and the $3,000 cash prize.

“Every time I have been out on this racetrack this weekend, it seems like I have had a bad draw, but the thing about RPM Speedway here and everybody putting in the good work on the race track is you know you are going to be on a good racetrack eventually,” Nichols said. “With all of the rain, I know we had a little bit of character.”

He said this was his best win yet at the Fall Nationals after winning in previous years.

With a second chance for a win, Grabousiki would not find luck in the number 30 modified either, starting from and finishing in the fifth spot.

Only 15 out of the 24 racers in the modified feature would finish the race, but track points leader Daniel Gottschalk, Ellis, would move from the seventh position to take the checkered early Sunday morning.

“I went up and followed him for a while, but I couldn’t make it work with momentum,” he said. “It was pretty rough down there and hard to hit a consistent line.”

But a caution with three to go provided him the opportunity to move into the lead.

“I guessed it timed out good, got a good restart and got underneath him and made it work,” he said. “I don’t know what to say, I didn’t figure I had a chance halfway through.”

He called the win and the $5,000 prize the “highlight of his career.”

Full results from all six classes can be found on the RPM website.

 

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

After suffering significant damage during an August storm and canceling two events, major repairs have been made at Rolling Plains Motor Speedway — just in time to host the 12th annual Fall Nationals.

The event is set to kick off Thursday, Oct. 4, and will run through Saturday.

“We’ve got the pit concession building rebuilt and the scale house and Midwest Energy has been working out there getting ready to put up new lights and poles in the infield and behind the grandstand,” said Glenn Unrein, RPM president. “We’ve got the grandstands into position so we can use them at the Fall Nationals and everything is moving forward.”

During an Ellis County Commission meeting on Sept. 3, Jill Pfannenstiel, Ellis County Fair Board president, informed the commission that, with the extent of the damage, a special insurance adjuster was needed in order to process the claim as they organized a cleanup effort for the fairgrounds on which RPM sits.

“We have a lot of damage out there that is going to take a lot of time to repair,” Pfannenstiel said.

But with insurance only covering the damage and not the loss of revenue from canceled events, Unrein said repairs could not wait and began work at the speedway before the claim was settled.

“We’re still waiting it out,” he said. “We don’t know exactly how much they are going to cover and which areas.”

The scale house and winners circle were destroyed in the storm, along with several 80-foot light poles. The grandstand was also moved around a foot.

All three needed to be repaired before events could resume.

With repair costs coming from out of pocket, Unrein remains optimistic insurance will cover the expense.

“We have faith in them and believe they are going to cover the majority of it,” he said.

Either way, Hays will soon hear the rumbling of racing coming from the track.

The Fall Nationals is the richest event on the post-season IMCA schedule, according to RPM, which expects over 200 race teams to participate.

“Pre-entries are already flowing in from drivers from the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming and Canada,” according to an RPM press release for the event. “National, regional, state and local champions, and rookies will be trackside.”

“The Briney Motorsports IMCA Modifieds race for $5,000 to win and a minimum of $400 to start their main event,” they said. “Also on the card for that weekend are the Advantage Glass Plus IMCA Stock Cars racing for $3,000 to win and $250 to start, Walt’s Repair & Machine IMCA Northern SportMods for $2,000 and $175 to start, Golden Plains Trucking IMCA Hobby Stocks for $1,500 and $175 to start, and the Simpson Farm Enterprises IMCA Sport Compacts for $400 and $50 to start. Radke Implement Crazy Cruisers will run for $200 to win.”

On the first day of the event, all classes will have the opportunity to get on the track during an open practice.

Gates are set to open on Friday and Saturday at 3 p.m.

Races will begin at 5 p.m.

Tickets for general admission run $15 each on Friday and Saturday. Children 12 and under enter free with an adult.

Adult pit passes are $25 on Thursday and $30 on Friday and Saturday and passes for children 12 and under are $10.

During the events, pits will open at noon each day, which gives fans an opportunity to get an up-close and personal look at the cars and teams.

Merchandise will also be available throughout the event.

Unrein said he hopes the drivers and crowd come to see the repair efforts made at the track.

“Everybody come out and see the rebuilt facilities, and it should be a great time at Fall Nationals,” he said.

More information about the event can be found at the RPM Speedway website at rpmspeedway.net., or on the tracks Facebook page.

 

New business in Hays offers fresh, ready-to-eat food crates, directly from chef to consumer

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Owner Tim Pfannenstiel calls what he serves “vintage western Kansas cuisine,” offering a taste of the past in a very out-of-the-box concept at his new location, Chef’s Crate, 501 Vine.

“The business is based on a concept to provide meals ready to eat for families and individuals that are preservative-free, made locally and put together with the mentality of healthy, local, natural,” Pfannenstiel said.

He calls the food “retro” but he does not mean old recipes — rather he offers meals that are hard to find in a world of food that is over-processed, over-cooked and shipped globally.

Retro, he said, is simply “the way people used to eat.”

“This is incorporating a style and a way of eating, and a lifestyle more than a fad term that describes a time period and a mood,” he said. “What your grandma made in 1972 is what is here. This type of food has a purpose.”

Creating simple, but delicious food starts with using the best products available, Pfannenstiel said.

“I buy the best base ingredients I can get, and by doing that, no matter what I put out it is of the highest quality because what I am buying at the beginning is of the highest quality,” he said.

From those ingredients, he creates meals from scratch, mixing together elements of restaurants, food manufacturing and grocery stores.

“Everything is made here,” Pfannenstiel said.

He grinds meat, makes dressings and does something truly rare using a signature Kansas product —  bakes fresh bread with Kansas grown and milled wheat.

“I’m one of the only places in western Kansas that makes fresh bread every day from wheat that is grown and milled in Kansas,” Pfannenstiel said.

He uses flour from the Stafford County Flour Mills, one of the few independent, locally owned mills left in the U.S., nationally known for their Hudson Cream Flour brand — from a mill that has been in operation since 1914 and powered almost exclusively with renewable wind energy.

“That’s why I have to use their flour or it doesn’t work,” Pfannenstiel said.

“I make meals that are coordinated for nutrition and for people who are too busy to cook,” he said, calling the food “heat and eat.”

Customers purchase a “crate” from the location that includes enough food for two people for over a week at a price of $100.

He has also been creating samplers of four items for $20, giving people an opportunity to try out the service before committing to a full package.

“It’s a learning thing for people,” Pfannenstiel said. “They can see what is available, and what it is about before committing to a one-week deal.”

“People want to eat better and my goal is, when they come back for the second week, they say they feel better,” he said, noting the nitrates and salts that used in most foods consumed in the U.S. are absent from what he offers.

His desire to deliver fresh meals free of those preservatives means, unlike most meal crate services, he does not ship or deliver his products. Food in those crates come from a variety of sources and change hands several times and go across the country two or three times, creating opportunities for the food to become compromised, he said.

“By someone coming to me and purchasing food, we are cutting out about eight to 10 people in the middle that usually either compromise the quality of the food or compromise the price,” Pfannenstiel said. “That’s why I don’t ship, I don’t deliver. I like when people come here and they know exactly what they are getting.”

Even with the focus on using classic food preparation methods, he does not shy away from technology to make the business work — orders at Chef’s Crate come over the location’s Facebook page and can be found here.

Using Facebook for orders dates back to before the location’s opening when Pfannenstiel created meal crates from his farm near Yocemento.

He ran the farm for nearly a decade, creating meals from food grown on the property, before moving into Hays and starting this new outlet.

“It just works out better,” Pfannenstiel said.

Opening the new location also allows him to work full time as a chef, but unlike his previous positions, this operation is entirely his. During his career, he opened 15 food operations, including a period of serving as the executive chef at Fort Hays State University before opening Gella’s Diner and Lb. Brewing Co.

While working with food remains the same in the new venture, without a full restaurant, and the complexity that comes with it, Pfannenstiel gets to connect directly with his customers.

The lack of a restaurant operation also means he can operate from a much smaller space, and the new location is a perfect fit, he said. Using fresh food helps as well — the operation only uses one small freezer, no microwaves and has only one staff member.

“In this situation, you don’t need a ton of help,” Pfannenstiel said, but when needed he has support from former employees, friends and acquaintances.

The building itself, while not a large space, and definitely a bit off the beaten path, fits his mission of becoming a destination business.

“It’s perfect, it’s everything you need,” Pfannenstiel said.

Prior to opening, the building was totally gutted and everything is brand new. Space outside also offers an area to expand and try new directions for the business in the future.

“There are a lot of things I can do here,” he said, and already has ideas of adding a greenhouse or hosting cooking classes in the location. “There’s a lot of possibilities.”

In whatever he is doing, he said he wants to give his customers what they want, not what he thinks they should have.

“Whatever works I do, I don’t do what is cool, or neat or fun. If it works, let’s do it,” Pfannenstiel said. “As a chef, you cannot dictate or tell what somebody should or should like to eat or drink. That’s offensive.”

Instead, he said a chef for research and learn to make what the customer wants to buy.

“Once you do that, things become much simpler,” Pfannenstiel said.

And based on reviews, Chef’s Crate has received so far he must be getting it right.

Chef’s Crate is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Crate reservations can be made on the business’ Facebook page and can be found by clicking here.

Pfannenstiel also has a professional Facebook page that can be found here.

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Last week, the Hays Police Department completed training with a new weapon that soon will be deployed, expanding the department’s arsenal and helping increase the range of less-lethal weapons currently used by the department.

“Through the department’s history, we have evolved as needed,” said HPD Detective J.B. Burkholder. “We have seen the need for a larger tool belt and have more options as to how to solve a problem with the least amount of force possible. In doing that, we have slowly graduated and gotten pepper spray, obtained batons, which is an impact weapon, and we have obtained Tasers. That has assisted us in solving problems without having to use a lot of force, and hopefully not lethal force.”

The weapons give officers another option in using less-lethal force with increased range and accuracy over existing options.

“It’s just something else in that ladder if you want to call it that, from where we can try these different things if we have time and the situation dictates, that we can try to solve the problem without causing injury to people,” Burkholder said. “So the 40 mm program came into play.”

The Special Situational Response Team has used a 37mm launcher for a number of years, but the new weapon has considerably improved accuracy, mostly due to the rifling in the barrel.

“Once you start using rifling, the accuracy improves dramatically,” Burkholder said. “With the 40 mm, we are able to deliver an impact munition at a greater range, which allows officers to keep distance from a threat, keeping ourselves and others safe.”

The effective range of the weapon is 5 to 131 feet, where the currently available bean bag round is only 20 to 75 feet Burkholder said.

“That distance is what we are looking for,” he said.

The goal of the weapon is to create a moment of pause in action when dealing with a subject trying to do harm to others.

“We want that person to have to think about, the pain stimulus, where they get hit with that impact projectile and they have to pause and decide whether or not they want to continue with the fight or if they want to start complying with the officers’ orders,” Burkholder said.

That pause allows officers to move in for an arrest safely.

Two types of ammunition will be deployed with the weapon for regular patrols that are intended for use on a subject – a softer foam round designed to create a pain response, and a slightly harder round that includes an OC component, more commonly known as pepper spray.

Both rounds are designed to be aimed away from the head or upper chest and do minimal damage to a subject, unlike a traditional firearm where the goal is to hit a target center mass.

“It allows the officer to hit the subject in a large muscle mass, where the injury is hopefully going to be limited to bruising or they may have small cuts and lacerations,” Burkholder said.

The foam rounds absorb energy from the impact, causing pain, with injuries generally limited to bruising at the impact site.

The OC rounds add another level of pain after the initial impact, giving an even greater chance the subject will comply.

“Once that round impacts the target, you will have that pain compliance and then they will also have to deal with the effects of the OC,” Burkholder said.

The OC affects respiration and causes inflation of the mucous membranes and skin irritation.

While the weapon increases the range of the department’s less-lethal options, Burkholder warns, if necessary the weapon can inflict lethal damage if an officer is forced to use the weapon differently than designed.

“With all of these weapons, When you start talking about less-lethal impact rounds … it’s not non-lethal, it’s less-lethal,” he said.

With training being completed last week, the weapon will be put into service in the near future.

“I don’t have an exact date, but it will be available to officers sooner rather than later,” Burkholder said.

The main goal of the weapon, Burkholder said, is increased safety and gives another option to officers before the use of deadly force.

“Our hope is that it is never used. Our hope is that we never have a situation where we need to use this, but it is another weapon in our tool belt where we can come up with a solution to a problem before using our firearm.”

On Saturday, classic cars, hot rods and monster machines filled Frontier Park for the third annual Thunder on the Plains car show.

Large crowds throughout the day came to enjoy all the festivities, including craft vendors and local food trucks.

Take a look at the event below.

Check out the winners below:

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On Saturday the Humane Society of the High Plains, with help from the Hays Public Library, hosted Paws and Pints at Defiance Brewing.

The event was a fundraiser for the humane society and gave animal lovers the chance to interact with others and participate in a number of activities, including paw painting and a talent show.

Take a look at some of the fun below.