Sumner Newscow report — The Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society will host Hannes Zacharias’s presentation and discussion, “Rediscovering the Arkansas River,” on February 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Cowley College, Sumner Campus, 2208 Davis-White Loop, Room 113, Wellington.

Everyone is welcome to attend this free program made possible by Humanities Kansas.

The Arkansas River pierces the heart of America, stretching 1,469 miles from the Tennessee Pass in Colorado to the Mississippi River at the eastern edge of Arkansas. As the nation’s sixth-longest river (45th longest in the world), it is both the economic engine and burden to millions of people and scores of cities bordering its banks. From raging rapids to diversion dams for irrigation ditches, to dry streambeds, and finally, barge traffic, this presentation will examine the impact this wild, elusive, and embattled river has had on cities, towns, and adjacent farmland, starting with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 through to the present day.

Hannes Zacharias was born in Wichita after his parents and siblings immigrated from Germany.  In 1959, the family moved to Dodge City, Kansas, just in time to experience the flooding of 1961, when most of the downtown was flooded.

“I asked myself,” Zacharias said, “where does the water go.”

So in 1976, at age 22, with encouragement from his parents, Zacharias made his first trip down the Arkansas River.  He began at Dodge City and he carried a Bicentennial message from Dodge City to New Orleans.

“It took two months to make the trip,” Zacharias said, “there were no cell phones then, so I wrote letters to my folks to let them know where I was.”

Zacharias wanted to document the journey, so along with the letters he sent home, he also wrote articles for the Dodge City Globe newspaper.

One of his adventures included falling asleep on the river and nearly being run over by a barge.

“When I got to New Orleans, I became an honorary citizen of New Orleans,” Zacharias said.

Over the years, Zacharias traveled different river sections and went down the Missouri River from Yankton, South Dakota, to St. Louis, Missouri.  But it wasn’t until he retired in 2018 at age 65 that he had the time to make the trip again, and so he decided to make his second trip down the Arkansas River beginning at Tennessee pass in Colorado, just above Leadville.

“There was a great deal of change in the technology available from 1976 to 2018,” Zacharias said, adding that even though he now had a cell phone, he was often unable to connect with towers, but he was able to provide his family with a device that would give them a way to track his progress.

“It was comforting to have that kind of technology,” Zacharias said, “people knew where I was.”

Zacharias said that different friends joined him for different stretches of the adventure, too, so he was not alone all the time. Zacharias said that he had another scary incident on this trip as he approached a boat and discovered when they waved him off that it was a dredge cleaning up the river.  He also suffered from heat exhaustion.

“The Arkansas River is designated as a navigable river, and it used to flow all the way from Colorado,” Zacharias said, “it just really doesn’t flow anymore.”

“What do you call a river that has no water in it,” Zacharias said.

“From Garden City to about Kinsley or Great Bend, it is dry,” Zacharias said, “it is now more of a tourist attraction for ATV’s.”

Zacharias said that the Arkansas River has a big impact on Kansas agriculture.  He said that approximately 20% of Kansas grain travels down the Arkansas River from the Port of Catoosa on the east side of Tulsa.

“It is a significant transfer of grain,” Zacharias said.

Zacharias said that this presentation also tells the story of his travels down the river as a child in 1976 and again in 2018 as a senior citizen.

Zacharias said that he appreciated having the time to sit in the kayak or pull off onto a sandbar to enjoy the sunset and the beautiful river and think about his life.

“I want to encourage others to act upon their dreams,” Zacharias said, “I want to encourage people to do their particular adventures.”

Hannes Zacharias is the Robert A. Kipp, professor of practice in public administration at the University of Kansas.

“Rediscovering the Arkansas River” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau, featuring humanities-based presentations designed to share stories that inspire, spark conversations that inform, and generate insights that strengthen civic engagement.

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For more information about “Rediscovering the Arkansas River” in Wellington, contact the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society at 620-447-4245 on Tuesdays from 10 to 4, or visit www.ksschgs.com.  After hours: Jane: 620-447-2213 or Sherry: 316-833-6161.