Voting has begun in the latest “8 Wonders of Kansas” series sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation.
Emporia and neighboring Cottonwood Falls each have advanced from the nomination stage to being one of 24 finalists in the 8 Wonders of Kansas Customs competition.
Emporia, the Founding City of Veterans Day, is being considered as a Wonder for its role in changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day and the city’s honoring of veterans on that day and throughout the year.
Cottonwood Falls’s finalist is its “lively jam session almost every Friday night at the Emma Chase Cafe in Cottonwood Falls, according to an announcement from KSF’s Executive Director Marci Penner.
“This list gives a wonderful overview of our quirky humor, cultural traditions, and our history but it also reflects our hobbies, entertainment, and recreational activities,” Penner said. “More than anything, the customs help tell the story of Kansas communities from a unique angle.”
Other Kansas cities named as finalists and the customs that brought the nominations are:
Plains, widest Main Street in the United States; Lawrence, University of Kansas’s Rock Chalk Jayhawk cheer; Harper, watching red fish weather vane at the top of water tower; Wamego and Liberal, clicking heels three times and saying, “There’s no place like home.”
Also, Ellinwood, underground tunnels, open for “tours of a mysterious past”; Prairie Spirit Trail, converting rails to trails, begun in 1996, spanning 51 miles from Ottawa to Iola; Blue Rapids, only round town square in Kansas; Lindsborg, Dala Horses;Topeka Civic Theatre, eating dinner prior to watching performance; 37 cities with operating soda fountains; Wetmore, a giant cottonwood tree famous as The Shoe Tree; Abilene, racing greyhounds, Greyhound Hall of Fame.
Also, Marquette, the Kansas Motorcycle Museum; Bellville, High Banks, oldest continuously used dirt track in the U.S., High Banks Hall of Fame and National Midget Auto Racing Museum; Atchison, Benedictine monks at St. Benedict’s Abbey, reciting and chanting psalms four times a day, seven days a week; Norton, “They Also Ran Gallery,” featuring people who finished second in presidential races; Abilene and Leavenworth, C.W. Parker carousels.
Also, Concordia, “saving a seat,” tradition ongoing since the 1960s; Cawker City, frugality that led to the World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine; Garden City, state’s oldest continuously open and largest hand-dug municipal swimming pool, built in 1922, year-round pool exhibit at Finney County Museum; Lacrosse, using natural material for fencing, Post Rock Museum; Franklin and Arma, walking to school on the country’s longest sidewalk, opened in 1936 to connect the two towns.
Votes from the public will determine the 8 Wonders, which will be announced before the end of October.
Votes may be cast before midnight Oct. 20 at www.8wonders.org, or by calling (620) 585-2374 for a ballot. Individuals may vote three times and must cast ballots for eight choices to be counted.
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