The tapes are cued up and we're ready to hit play.

Here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Hattebergs People.

But here we have a living museum, and we have museums to keep things that are special to us and things that are disappearing.

And the prairie has been disappearing.

Her mission was to document changes in the Kansas prairie in hopes of preserving it.

You'll see how Ira Barnard enjoyed both the challenges and rewards of caring for the precious Kansas Outdoor.

Also, if you want to know what real art is, ask a child they haven't spoiled yet.

With children in mind, Bruce White became a master at building carousels.

Learn about his fascinating career that took shape in a small Kansas town.

And I'm just pretty happy being me, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

He was the Kansas mayor who liked to travel in style, learn the story behind his luxury limo and why it wasn't nearly as off putting as you May 1st suspect.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Those stories are just some of those.

We'll show you this half hour of Hattebergs people.

These stories are like old friends.

Their lives radiate from the screen, like prophets of the past.

They were teachers, but not in a classroom.

Instead, they taught about life to those around them who cared to listen.

And I was their student.

Before the farms and cities came to be.

Kansas was virtually walled to Wall Prairie.

And fortunately a good bit of it still does exist today, thanks to the efforts of people like Ira Lee Barnard.

She and I met Out in the Wild Grassland way back in 2002.

I think that as Kansans, we probably take our pride for granted.

I think what's important about the prairie is that it's our heritage.

On what was the 11,000 acre Zebra Ranch, now a tallgrass prairie national preserve.

Botanist Ira Barnard has a front row seat to that changing prairie.

The curious and subtle.

You don't expect too much when you first come, but you go out and you learn a little bit about it.

You get out there and actually see those vistas and and the grand tour.

Right here we have a living museum and we have museums to keep things that are special to us and things that are disappearing.

And the prairie has been disappearing.

Her work documents, the grasses, flowers and plants of the prairie.

Like this one.

I had never heard of the compass.

Plants and it gets its name because those huge, wonderfully lobed leaves usually point in a north and south direction.

So the early settlers gave it that name.

The vastness of this land is surprising.

A park ranger tours truck seems small, looking at it from the top of a hill.

National Park Service rangers are tour guides to these Illinois visitors.

Looks like a tree to the common man, but cattle man.

A tree is nothing but a big weed because it just takes and takes.

It doesn't give anything back beneficial to the cattle man.

Something that you just inherit the love of the outdoors and nature and natural things.

And it's really wonderful.

It's a privilege to get to come out and work.

There's some days when you're hot and you're tired and you're thirsty and ready to go home.

But it's it's always interesting and it's always changing.

Much of our release work is done with photos like these, comparing a single point on the prairie to see if plants are added or subtracted.

You can also see her drawings in books and notecards.

And now they say that there's only 1 to 3% of the prairie remaining, and we have most of that for a good barker.

The tallgrass prairie is right here in the Flint hills of Kansas, and I think as Kansans, we just take it for granted.

In other states, they've lost all of their prairie and so we have something really special right here in our own backyards.

Now, I really is retired from the Park Service, but she still volunteers.

Her work includes collecting seed from the prairie plants to be grown elsewhere.

Also, she wrote this book, Field Guide to the Common Grasses of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

It's available from booksellers online.

And I know four people not from Kansas.

When you talk about the Kansas prairie, they look at you like you have three heads and you're the most boring person on the world.

That's not true.

The Kansas prairie is a beautiful, gorgeous place full of life.

And I feel sorry for the Kansans who haven't spent any time out on the prairie.

I still go out there today.

I know you do.

It's very social.

And I love to spend time out there shooting either in the early morning or in the evening.

I will admit that when it's 100 degrees outside, it's a hot place to be.

It's a.

Place.

To be.

But this time of year, it's a beautiful place to be.

I'm going to have to go along with you sometime when you go out to the prairie.

There's a lot of history out there.

There is.

And around every country mile.

Oh, yeah.

All right, Larry, a few things are more timeless than the carousel.

Riding a horse on a merry go round brings just as much joy to children today as it did to us when we were young.

Yeah, in the town of Kinsley now, there was a man named Bruce White who made those horses that go on the carousel.

Now for Bruce.

His craft was more than just a way to make a living.

Every time we go to a fair, no matter what our age, there is something magic.

Magic about the carousel.

Maybe it's because when we were small, these carved wooden horses almost seemed real.

And I really believe that everybody has some kind of talent.

Some of us have discovered it, and a lot of us haven't.

We'll meet the man who makes carousel animals come to life on the MasterCard and the fool that got us in this mess.

Bruce White lives in Kinsley, Kansas.

Now, you remember Kinsley.

It's 161 miles from San Francisco and 1561 miles from New York.

For Bruce and his company called White's Carousels, Inc., this this is the place the magic began.

When I was a young man getting ready to set out on my own, I asked my dad to do it myself.

He said, Well, then you figure out what you do best and stick with it.

Five kids later said, Well, it may be fun, but I can't make a living.

And as I picked up Woodcarving.

Bruce was discovered by a Florida toy company, and for years he worked for them, carving his heart out but aching to come back to Kansas.

So I figured out if I was getting a two and a half percent royalty after everything I ever did for that company, I'd be making about $800,000 a year.

That little hard for me to stomach.

With dream in hand, he left to Florida and headed back to the plains.

We thought Kennedy was a beautiful little town, so we moved here.

Ed worked.

Now Bruce is getting orders from companies like Chance Manufacturing, Long, John Silvers and Applebees, all four carved out of sometimes a wooden carving is used as a mold to produce many copies.

Other times, he carves an original for wealthy people who just want one for their grandchildren.

I didn't know I had a talent Nas until I was 27 years old.

I never had an art class or anything.

So the proof of desire is perceived, but it is the small carousels that he's built those.

Those are his real jewelry.

And he's made them so that the kids could ride.

And that's what it's all about.

You know, when I see a kid riding on my carousel, then I know my life is worthwhile.

I've done something worthwhile with my life.

There's more to life than just money.

And I want the children to enjoy what I'm doing also.

One thing that I tell people is if you want know what real art is, ask a child.

They haven't spoiled yet.

In this small town in the middle of the country.

Bruce White carves smiles from children's faces and he makes his mark in the dizzying world of the carousel.

Monetary success is important, but not his only master.

Maybe one day I'll get there.

But as long as I can take my carousel out and see the kids being happy and few kids around on my carousel animals, then I'm happy and it's all worthwhile.

Now, in 2000, just a couple of years after that story, Bruce's shop caught fire and he lost everything.

Bruce then took up truck driving and did that for several years.

He wrote a couple of books, one about Woodcarving and one about his experience as a truck driver caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Then Bruce started losing his eyesight because of macular degeneration, and that put the kibosh on the truck driving, of course.

And according to his website, as of 2014, Bruce was living in Wichita back pursuing his talent for wood carving.

And that's the last update we have on him.

But isn't it fascinating how life takes you on these twists and turns you start out carving horses for a carousel and then you're truck driving and then a medical problem ensues.

And then he writes a book on truck driving, not on necessarily on the carousels, but.

Those are creative, multitalented individuals who face adversity in life, you know, with all of the power that they put into their creativity and they.

Never give up and they share with us.

That's right.

As well.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes.

Yeah.

A lot of people thought Ron and Judy Knapp were dreaming when they saw the potential in an old, rundown house.

But they had big ideas for it and it proved to be a big job.

Take a look.

Victorian Painted Lady.

And we have restored it and transformed it into a Victorian style house.

Man Yes.

In 1972.

Judy And Ron Knepp had a dream to move this old home from Augusta and put it on a piece of rural land near Santa Fe Lake Road.

A lot of it.

I was working 10 hours, six days a week at going.

During the time that we restored it to live in and I had a crew of high schoolers helping me and Emily and we really we were really home that year.

Did they ever piece after piece of painstakingly detailed work finally came together?

So we were ambitious.

It scares me to think about starting those kind of projects today.

But now they have a common a cat attitude about it all.

I sat for many, many, many evenings and went through these books.

We've got six of them.

And after 30 years of work, boy, did it pay off.

When we started it, everybody else thought it was impossible.

We like gaudy things and we're attracted to them.

And and when we look at a new house, they just look manufactured to us.

And these types of houses just look created.

Sometimes we looked at what we had started and what have we done.

We could have had a nice little modular in down.

Turn if we move the house out here with no roof at all.

Not even a third story.

It rained for a month and that caused us to have to do a complete job on the house.

I have always been enchanted with old two story houses.

Victorian houses particularly we get started on something, we get an idea and we we get started on it.

We can't wait to see what it's going to look like.

Anticipation and it's still that way 30 years later.

I've been accused by people of being just full of ideas.

And and I think that's my and God given gift is my idea of an ability to apply them.

I love my house.

I love everything that we've done.

And I wouldn't trade it for a brand new house.

No, no way.

I plan to keep on with this project adding to it.

We were kind of ashamed of it for so many years because we couldn't quite get it finished.

And now it's nice to be proud of it.

It's an honor for for strangers to admire what you've done, a real, genuine honor.

And for the house.

It's us.

It literally is our dream come true.

To now than still live in the house and are still enjoying life not far from Santa Fe Lake along Highway 54.

And it's so nice to see a couple enthused about a project together.

It's just not one of them.

It's it's both of them involved in the house renovation.

They say that's what makes a marriage work.

So it.

Works.

I guess I should get into golfing and you should get into pie making.

Oh, that would be a bad thing.

My dad did that.

Oh, he did.

And I found I had zero talent for it.

So I'm I'm back to just doing this.

That's another story we'll have to revisit sometime.

The bakery in Winfield.

Peerless Baking Company.

Yes, I have great memories from that.

I wish I could go back in time, don't you?

Well, we'll bring you back in time.

We'll show you glimpses of it in a later.

Hamburg's people sounds.

Great.

Okay.

Winfield is known as the mural capital of Kansas with a dozen or more large, colorful paintings adorning buildings around town.

In 1998, local artist Elizabeth Boyd Spencer was just finishing up a real doozy on the outside of the lumberyard.

Now watch this video.

Then stick around to hear the shocking end to this story.

12 feet tall and 132 feet long.

And I started last October, a year ago.

Elizabeth Boyd Spencer of Winfield has a lot to say as an artist.

She says that on this wall, her canvas along one of Winfield's busiest streets.

I've always done some kind of painting, but mural painting is my favorite because of the size.

It's huge, but that's okay because Elizabeth Spencer is one of those people who isn't afraid of a challenge.

I'd rather do this than eat.

I've lost £70 since I started this mural.

The building owner decided to have Elizabeth paint the mural rather than to leave it a boring, blank side of a building.

Oh, it's very fun.

It's like breathing.

I start painting and everything else goes away.

The mural represents scenes she's familiar with around the Winfield area.

Like this house, her grandparent lived in.

This house was supposed to have been a Sears and Roebuck house, which came in a carton to be built.

But it is the bridge and barn that are her favorite.

And the barn has such a feeling of the architecture of this area, the limestone and the colors in it.

If you look closely, you'll see a tractor owned by another Winfield resident or perhaps her grandson riding on the train.

The mural is designed to be seen from the car passing by or from the art lover who stops, gets out and really takes a close look.

Whenever I'm painting, it's like it's really the inside of me coming out.

Sometimes as many as 50 people a day stop and admire her work.

And there are the same questions.

Why do you do it?

I think it's something inside, something that you just have to do.

Why did somebody sing?

To tell somebody what's inside of you?

For the same reason a writer writes.

Would you like that in a bag?

But there is more to this woman that just art.

She is like the rest of us.

She has two other jobs to supplement her income at Winfield's Bluestem bookstore and at the Winfield State Hospital, where she is the assistant procurement officer, a job that will soon end.

But it is here on the side of a building where her real work is her dream work.

I think it's kind of like having a child that you've raised and they've graduated from school and gone out into the world and you say, Well, here it is.

This is the best I could do.

And then you can feel proud of the kid because she's doing well with every project that I do.

I learn some more and I'm ready for the next one.

Well, Elizabeth spent two years painting that mural, and she finished it in August of 1998.

Then she and her new husband went on their honeymoon.

When they returned, they discovered the lumber yard had burned down less than a month after she finished it, her mural was gone forever.

You know?

You know, that's all that's the problem when artists paint those big spaces on the sides of buildings.

Stuff happens.

Stuff.

Happens, stuff happens.

And it happened to her.

And that mural was right on ninth Street, which is the entry to to Winfield.

Yeah, major entry to Winfield.

So everybody could see it.

There was next to a convenience store and it was a great little mural.

That is no more.

That is no more.

But I said it was gone forever.

I kind of misspoke because it lives on in video.

It lives on in video with windows.

And she has one or two pictures.

Yeah.

Now, let's rewind to 1986 when Dodge City had a bigger than life mayor who knew how to turn heads?

He did.

His name was Dale Northern.

And at first glance, he might have come across as a bit pretentious.

But there's more to that story.

I'm just pretty happy being me, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

You're probably thinking with a red carpet in a chauffeur driven limousine who wouldn't be happy?

Family and I are very, very proud of the car.

I've been very lucky and I'm very thankful for the many, many good things that's happened to me.

They put a fence around Ford County and never let me out except on vacation.

That'd be fine with me.

Now, remember, in Dodge City, things aren't always what they seem like.

The staged gunfight on Front Street.

The mayor doesn't really use a chauffeur driven limousine to go to work.

Oh, it's his limo.

All right.

But it's used to make others happy.

Most of all, it's just.

It's just a fun car, that's all.

The fun is the way he uses it for free.

He takes teenagers to proms, halls, elementary age, children to the Dairy Queen, takes Dodge City.

Folks who are celebrating their anniversary out for a night on the town, all at no charge.

And when the car arrives, it turns heads.

Not to go strolling along the TV.

Oh, yeah, it's got the works.

TV, videotape, deck, refrigerator, bar, telephone.

It's all there.

And Mayor Dale Northern loves to share.

It with people.

I had one old boy say, that car is not cool.

It's cold.

You had to help yourself.

Live from the Dodge City Civic Hall.

And there are a couple of other things you should know about the man, Dale Norden, Christmas telephone.

Yearly, he sponsors a telethon to raise money for the elderly of southwest Kansas.

Obviously, there's a lot happening in this man's life.

I'd say we're just a common old cowboy, and we're going to do the best we can with the tools that we got to work with.

Dale and his wife, Nelda, along with their friend Clayton Hall.

All take turns driving a limo.

It's three friends, really, just acting out parts and having a good time, especially on the road.

You've been accused of being the governor of.

Several states on her last trip.

I have been accused of being a damn rich wheat farmer between Las Vegas and Salt Lake.

We got accused of being Willie Nelson.

Now, admit it just once.

Wouldn't you like to pull up in front of the grocery store, have the shopper wait?

Yeah, just once.

Well, by letting others use the car, Dale Northern gives us all a taste of the good life.

We've had a lot of fun with it.

If it.

If it was not repossessed.

But, of course, take it away from me today.

I've already had more fun out of it than most people have in a lifetime.

Now, Dale served as Dodge City mayor for a total of four terms from the early 1970s into the nineties.

He passed away in 1996.

And you're probably wondering whatever happened to that limousine?

Well, Dale was also a car salesman and had several limos throughout the years.

And of course, there's no telling what happened to that old white one in the story.

His last limo was Navy blue.

And when Dale passed away, his son took it back to California with him after the funeral.

And I know he loved those limousines and I'm guessing a blue limousine in California.

It still be pretty popular.

It's pretty popular.

What a what a legacy from Dodge City, which has a legacy of its own anyway.

That's right.

All right.

Okay.

We want to remind you, if you have a question or a comment, a compliment, we like compliments.

You can even complain.

You can email us at hattebergspeople@kpts.org.

That's our address.

And until next time, I'm Susan Peters.

And I'm Larry Hatteberg.

Thanks for watching.

We will see you again soon.