PITTSBURG — A recent visit to the Miners Hall Museum in Franklin to see “The Way We Worked” exhibit brought home the importance of learning about our region’s history.
The exhibit tells of a 10,000-strong work force that tore at the earth in their search for coal in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s. Hundreds of mining camps dotted the landscape of Crawford County.
“My father eked out a living by farming in the summer and working mines in the summer,” Slovakian Alma Perina is quoted in a display.
Faced with political, economic and religious oppression in Eastern Europe during the late 1800s and early 1900s, Slavs from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Serbia and Croatia came in waves to the United States, as did Italians, Germans, Scots and even African Americans. Many Europeans found the rolling hills of southeast Kansas to their liking and stayed long after the mines closed.
For those who remember the late Congressman Joe Skubitz, 1906-2000, he was the son of Joe Sr., a Slovakian who moved his young family to Frontenac to work in the mines. His mother, Mary, was a firebrand who joined the ranks of the “Amazon Women,” fighting for miners’ rights including an eight-hour workday. Both Mary and Joe claimed allegiance to the Socialist party, instilling in their young son a strong sense of social justice. His parents’ strong political leanings explained Joe Jr.’s eventual foray into politics and why he advocated for workers’ rights, among other causes.
THE FRANKLIN exhibit tells the story of working class America over 150 years, and specifically of the strip-mining life of a bygone era. The Kansas Humanities Council, of which I serve on the board, partnered with the Smithson-ian Institute to sponsor six exhibits across the state. The small berg of Franklin, population 200, was one of six Kansas cities to sponsor the exhibit out of 36 applicants, along with Concordia, Goodland, Baldwin City, Lyons and Hugoton. Each town complimented the Smithsonian exhibition with its own working history. The Franklin museum grew its volunteer base to more than 850 to coordinate the exhibit as well as monthly special exhibits featuring local industries and organizations.
Franklin’s six-week exhibit ends at 4 p.m. Sunday. Its visitors log tops more than 5,000 for this special exhibit.
Julie Mulvihill, executive director of the Kansas Humanities Council, said Franklin’s application to sponsor the exhibit was impressive, “and goes to show there’s no such thing as being too small to celebrate your history.”
The exhibit brought the area together in other ways.
An arts group, the Southeast Kansas Arts Fest, was formed to help celebrate the exhibit. Area artists created their versions of a coal bucket, similar to the fiberglass cows that decorated downtown Chicago several years back.
“We’ve created quite a stir,” said Steve Robb, who headed up the movement. Robb is formerly of Iola where he worked 15 years at Iola State Bank. He’s been in Pittsburg the last 20 years, where he worked at Pittsburg State University as director of its business and technology institute, retiring several years back.
Twenty-six of the colorful buckets dot downtown Pittsburg and neighboring towns. At summer’s end the buckets will be raffled off to raise funds for the area’s Little Balkans Day Festival, another celebration of the area’s rich ethnic heritage.
HISTORY HELPS give us a sense of perspective of who we are today.
The strip mines are long gone. They now appear as nice waterways and made-to-tailor habitat for wildlife across the once-ravaged 41 acres. Production of the soft, bituminous coal ended in the 1920s, giving way to the coal of Colorado.
The Miners Museum helps keep the story alive, otherwise who would know.
THE HUMANITIES expose people to art, literature, history and culture. Science teaches how the world works; the humanities teach why we are here and our purpose.
The KHC is for the most part funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its dependence on state funds has never been too great, and because of budget cuts to those scant funds it has had to grow a stronger base from private donations.
These monies help fund projects that preserve history and promote dialogue.
Examples include helping libraries and historical societies preserve their collections, such as through the digitization of photographs or better cataloging of holdings.
KHC also helps sponsor film festivals, such as Iola’s Buster Keaton Celebration and the Latin American Cinema Festival in Kansas City. It funds oral histories and documentaries. Along with the Kansas Historical Society, the KHC helps fund speakers bureaus where experts help lead discussions on Kansas leaders and items of interest such as the Harvey Girls, anthropological finds, the Mexican American work history in Kansas, and the Civil Rights movement.
In a 7-minute video called “The Heart of the Matter,” recently created by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, two young girls are pictured viewing Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon in 1969 and his quote, “That’s one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.”
“I don’t think that was such a big leap,” says one to the other, totally missing the significance of the historic milestone.
No, I don’t suppose for today’s youth it is such a big deal to walk on the moon, although it’s been 40 years since we’ve attempted the feat.
Hopefully, some parent or teacher, some book or article, some discussion, will someday reach those girls and explain not only the race to the moon during the Cold War between Russia and the United States, but also the more intangible quest of that era to go where no man had gone before and the euphoria we all felt to collectively set foot not only on the moon, but also on a piece of the heavens.
