Our Past Is Present February 16, 2018

February 16, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today’s time will be spent sharing some trivia about our area.  You can use these to test your friends to see how much they AND you know about the history of Junction City, Fort Riley and our county.  Here we go…

            *Junction City was the first town west of the Mississippi to distribute Coca-Cola.

            *The Junction City Ladies Reading Club is the oldest Federated Club in Kansas and one of the first west of the Mississippi.

            *In 1929, the “Uptown Theater” was one of the first theaters in Kansas to be equipped with “talkies” or motion pictures.

            *Famous guests of the Historic Bartell Hotel include: Gene Tierney, John Phillip Sousa, W.C. Field, Gloria Vanderbilt, Dan Dailey and John Wayne. 

            *Fort Riley was first named Camp Center, because it was believed to be the geographic center of the United States.

            *Davis County was Geary County’s original name.

            *St. Mary’s Chapel, Building 3, at Fort Riley was the first stone church in Kansas.  The original building was constructed by the Episcopalians in the mid 1850’s.

            So, how many of these did you know?  Hopefully you knew all of them. 

We’ll do this again on a future program of “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.