Prairie Museum of Art & History, Colby, Kansas

We had planned to stay in a campground on the way that sounded good in the book and was only about 150 miles away, but when we went there it was just some hook ups in a field with nothing around so we decided to drive another 80 miles and stay at a Wal-Mart. We drove to Colby, Kansas and there was a museum right across the road so naturally I wanted to go and see it. It was a warm and sunny so Ches came with me. With the time change (1 hour later) we only had 30 minutes to see the museum, but they said we could come back the next day for no charge. (there was so much to see I went back the next morning for about an hour and took lots of pictures)

Prairie Museum of Art & History
1930’s Farmstead was a typical house of this period, nicely furnished. The yard included a wooden blade windmill called “umbrella” or “morning glory,” and outhouse, small barn with animals, and herb garden.

There was a typical one room schoolhouse and small church.

Sod House

Of more interest to me was a sod home. The sod house shows the ingenuity of the homesteaders. It is made of sod blocks, 1 foot by 2 feet and 4 inches deep. This was a fancy one with wooden floors instead of dirt, and had 2 windows.

Cooper Barn
This is supposed to be the largest barn in Kansas, measuring 66 feet wide, 114 feet long and 48 feet high. It contains over 100 hundred years of agriculture history, artifacts and photos, Ches enjoyed this part.



Museum Building
The museum building contains the collection from the Kuskas family that was donated in 1975 and it took mo re than 3 moving trucks to move the 17 tons of artefacts and is valued at more than a million dollars. The collection is very ecelectic including: glassware, ornaments, jewellery, clothing, furniture, dolls, and toys. I especially enjoyed looking at the beautiful glassware.

Jessie Montes
This artist has unique artwork that is made from corrugated cardboard. He cuts the cardboard in ¼ inch strips on a right angle, a 45 degrees or parallel to the corrugations. This gives him three interesting textures with which to work as he creates each piece of art. The strips are then glued edgewise onto the surface of the base, also made of cardboard, to form the various pieces of art. A protective coating is placed over the work when it is finished.