From where we parked near the entrance to Kanopolis State park, we could see the mountain man encampment scattered among the trees across the road.

White canvas tents of all sizes and descriptions, including teepees dotted the little valley. The sharp smell of wood smoke from campfires hung in the air, stinging our eyes and slightly provoking my grandsons asthma. Mountain man rendezvous began in the early 19th century as opportunities for mountain men to gather for social interaction, to trade furs and goods and to purchase needed supplies they couldn’t make or harvest for themselves like traps and rifles.

Shooting and knife & tomahawk throwing competitions were a part of such gatherings, and as we walked into the encampment the booming sounds of muzzleloader fire echoed through the trees as both men and women shooters tried to best each other. I could only try to imagine what welcome sights and sounds these would have been to the mountain men of generations ago as they gathered together after months of trapping, hunting and living alone in the mountains.

The Prairie Long Rifles (PLR) mountain man club started in 1978 with 11 members (7 of which are still in the club today) and began holding annual rendezvous open to the public in a pasture just east of Salina, KS. They changed rendezvous venues a couple times and in 1993 chose Ottawa State Fishing Lake near Minneapolis, KS.

Wendy Bowls, a conservation worker at Kanopolis Reservoir attended PLR’s rendezvous there at Ottawa State Fishing Lake in 2000. The weather had been wet and rainy and the side roads leading to the site were muddy, greatly restricting public access, and parking was terrible. Wendy convinced her bosses at Kanopolis Reservoir to invite PLR to hold their annual fall rendezvous there at Kanapolis Lake where they have been now since 2001. Wendy’s daughter Lacey first shot a muzzle loading rifle at their fall get together when she was 4 years old, and has returned to shoot again each year for the past twenty years. Prairie Long Rifles presently has 30 active members.

I was certain my 10 year old grandson Jacob would turn himself inside-out for a chance to learn how to throw a big knife and a tomahawk (known in camp as a “hawk”) at a wooden target, but when he strongly declined, I wasn’t even going to suggest he shoot a muzzle loading rifle. But when asked, he was eager to do just that. Paul Riedel, a retired school counselor from Minneapolis has been helping teach kids to shoot muzzleloaders at PLR rendezvous for at least 20 years.

A special range was setup for kids with small steel buffalo targets balanced side-by-side on a board and a picnic table for a shooting bench. Dennis Wolf, known around camp as “Wolf” sat down with Jacob and explained to him the workings of a muzzle loading rifle and how to safely load and shoot one. With each shot, a puff of blue smoke enveloped them both for a couple seconds, and Jacob’s third shot spun the buffalo around on the board. With the firing line secured, Wolf walked downrange with Jacob, showed him where he hit the target and hung a medallion around his neck that said “I shot a muzzleloader.”

George Mills, known around camp as Bart, lives in Tonganoxie, KS and by day helps make “Cheese It” cheese crackers at the Kellogg Bakery in Kansas City. On his time off, he becomes “Bart” and attends mountain man rendezvous where he sells and trades leather goods he’s made. He told me “I make leather shirts, pants, moccasins and about anything a mountain man uses.”

Bart sports a nice beard and years ago he was told he looked like a mountain man Santa. So he wears his Santa hat from Thanksgiving till Christmas and plays Santa at the annual Salina Trade Show, a mountain man trade show where one can buy or trade for anything needed to enjoy the pastime of mountain man living. George says he enjoys the mountain man lifestyle “Cause’ it allows me to spend time like the old folks did.”

Paul Ottensmeier is a retired purchasing agent that was given the name 2 Paws when he was young by his grandfather. His wife Teresa, known in camp as Songbird is the kitchen manager at McKinley school in Abilene. Their son Jonathon, aka Shooting Star, his wife Jean and their kids all participate in mountain man activities with 2 Paws and Songbird. 2 Paws made all the buckskin period clothing the group wears, and puts out a “trading blanket” on the ground covered with clothing and other mountain man necessities to buy, sell and trade. They belong to the Turkey Creek Muzzleloaders but are welcomed at all PLR events.

I asked everyone I spoke with why they enjoy reliving the lives of mountain men and their families. Some liked the historical aspect of it, some liked what it taught their kids, some liked the challenges of that life, but everyone without fail liked the simplicity of that lifestyle of days gone by; all wonderful reasons in my book to Continue Exploring Kansas Outdoors!

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

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It’s that time of the year where we see a very noticeable needle drop on some evergreens such as arborvitae, pines and spruce.

In fact, just this last past week I have received a number of calls on this very issue. Not to worry, as this is normal, and to be expected. Evergreens do not keep their needles indefinitely but will drop them after one to several years. This is a process that happens with these types of conifers, where 2- to 4-year-old needles, usually in the interior of the canopy by this time, turn yellow, then brown, and eventually drop off.

For example, Ponderosa and Scotch pines usually keep their needles for three years. However, this pattern may vary from tree to tree and year to year. Also, this process may be a gradual one, or all the older needles may turn in a very short period of time.

If the needle dropping is sudden, and people are not familiar with this process, it is often that they become concerned about the health of these trees. Again, this natural phenomenon occurs every year, and does not by any means hurt the tree. Having said that, be sure to check that only the older needles towards the center of the shrub or tree, are the ones browning and dropping.

The needles on the ends and tips of the branches should look fine, having their normal green color. Check to see that there is no spotting or banding on the needles on the ones that are turning yellow. If spotting or banding is noted, take a sample to your local county extension office for diagnosis. What’s more, if the tips of the branches (candles) have turned brown, brittle, and are hollow inside, or if whole branches and sections of the plant have died back, again, be sure to contact your local Extension office. They have information for the proper remedial actions to take.

Rip Winkel has been the Horticulture agent in the Cottonwood District (Barton and Ellis Counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact the office by e-mail at cottonwood.k-state.edu or calling either 785-682-9430, or 620-793-1910.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

March 6, 2017. Members of the Gardiner family were working cattle on their ranch in southwest Kansas when they started to smell smoke. Little did they know that almost their entire ranch was about to be consumed by the largest wildfire in the history of Kansas.

In the last two weeks, we’ve learned about Mark, Greg and Garth Gardiner who operate Gardiner Angus Ranch. They were at the epicenter of this disastrous fire in 2017.

In February 2017, an ice storm loosened overhead power lines in Oklahoma. When high winds arose in March, the lines banged together, arced and started to melt, causing sparks which set fire to the dry grass below.

“We were working cattle when we started to smell smoke. We could tell it was pretty intense,” Mark said. He went to alert the neighbors. When the wind speed rose to 80 miles an hour and changed direction, disaster was on its way.

“There was a wall of flames as far as I could see,” Mark said. He called all the people he could and told them to get out of the path. Mark and his wife Eva hurried to their house which was directly in the path of the flames. He called his brother Greg and told him to bring a trailer to rescue the horses there.

Mark and Eva found flames racing toward the house. They ran in to try to rescue the dogs. Mark was able to grab the kids’ baby pictures and some boxes of letters, but he lost Eva in the smoke.

Meanwhile, Greg had arrived with the horse trailer. Confronted with a 60-foot wall of flames, he drove the truck and trailer out to the wheat pasture in blinding smoke, with embers hitting the windshield.

“I felt so bad that I left,” Greg said, but it turned out to be a blessing. “It was a God thing,” Greg said in retrospect. “Mark’s house is built in a place where there’s only one way in and one way out. If I hadn’t moved the truck when I did, he would have been trapped inside.”

Greg met Eva in the wheat field, but they didn’t know if Mark had survived. He had doubled back to fight the fire. Twenty minutes later, firemen confirmed to them that Mark was alive.

Much of Clark County was consumed in the fire. One man perished when his semi-truck jack-knifed in the smoke and he tried to escape on foot. “You couldn’t outrun it,” Mark said.

Thanks to the hard work of firefighters and other volunteers, the towns in the county were spared. Those include the rural towns of Ashland, population 867; Protection, population 514; and Englewood, population 77 people. Now, that’s rural.

When it was all over, Mark and Eva Gardiner’s home was burned up along with 42,000 acres, 7,000 bales, 270 miles of fence, and hundreds of cattle. Hundreds more had to be euthanized. However, their key genetic beef seedstock survived, as did their horses.

The response to the disaster was heartwarming. “I didn’t leave the ranch for 48 hours, but as I did, a semi hauling hay bales was already coming into the drive,” Greg said.

“People came from all over to help,” Mark said. They were truly making a difference.

The Ashland Community Foundation, Kansas Livestock Association, and Working Ranch Cowboys Association helped provide major relief.

“Senator Jerry Moran and Congressman Roger Marshall were really helpful,” Mark said. He credits local banker Kendal Kay and veterinarian Randall Spare with providing the Gardiners key support which they needed.

“I did everything in the aftermath with a joyful heart, because my family had survived,” Greg said. “Within nine months, we had completely rebuilt and improved our infrastructure,” he said. What’s more, late spring rainfall enabled the recovery of the grassland.

The Gardiners keep it all in perspective. “People say to me, `I’m sorry for your loss,’” Mark said. “Hey, I didn’t lose anything,” he said. “All I lost was just stuff. It’s the people that matter.”

That is a powerful lesson for all of us from March 6, 2017.