November 7, 2017
This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.
There were
6-8,000 visitors who were entertained during the Fort Riley Army and National
Guard maneuvers in 1903. This was almost
twice as many as had come the previous year.
Most of the people who were attracted to the maneuvers planned to stay a
day or two at Fort Riley. However, they
were disappointed because there were no accommodations for them. Several weeks before the maneuvers, a Mr.
Tyler, who was the President of the electric railway, sent out over a hundred
advertisements to as many newspapers in the state as he could. His ploy was to be sure that those who were
coming for the maneuvers knew that Junction City was the closest town near to
the Fort and was the only place in the vicinity of the big camp that had
accommodations. Besides advertising in
the newspapers, Mr. Tyler had thousands of posters printed and sent them to all
the towns in Central Kansas. He spent
his own money for the printing of the posters and newspaper ads, which
benefitted his electric street car company in the end. Those who visited or stayed in town rode his
cars back and forth to the Post and all the Junction City business also
profited from his investment.
Tomorrow’s
story will be about how the farmers in the area profited from the maneuvers at
Fort Riley.
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