The course is immaculate, and well-maintained, with only the owner, his father, and a gal in the office taking care of things. Twenty bucks with a cart was an astounding green fee, and, I must admit that the course was very challenging!
We left York, Nebraska, on Wednesday, the 23rd, and headed south on US 75 out of Nebraska City toward Topeka, Kansas, two hundred and ten miles away.
On Thursday, the 24th, we had a lazy morning, but took time about eleven am to head out to the Kansas State Capitol, just a couple of miles away. We found parking in the underground lot under the Capitol, in space A057. That's adjacent to space....
The Capitol building is second only to Iowa in height, and is one of only two capitol buildings that allow visitors to climb to the dome. We're told that the Oregon State Capitol Building also allows visitors to get to the dome.
We began our visit with a tour of "The Dome" while we waited for the building tour to begin. This tour starts on the fifth floor and immediately enters the area around the interior dome. This area has been left much as it was originally, with only minor safety issues addressed. The space between the interior and the exterior dome is seventy-five feet high and exposes the original construction details.
There are 296 steps from the fifth floor past the interior dome to the exterior dome. While D didn't participate, or our friend Roger, who has some joint issues, Mary and I went for it!
While this pic is a bit of an illusion on the right side, the stairs do indeed rise to that little curly-cue section near the top!
On one of the four sorta shaky iron beams that support the spiral stairs, about 1/2 way out, is a name and a date of 1939. Placed there by an intrepid climber back in the days before the stairs existed, and when the capitol was open twenty four hours a day without security! Not this cowboy!
The Capitol Building has recently undergone a 300-plus million dollar renovation, with a hoist mechanism being installed above the interior dome to lower the rotunda chandelier to the floor for maintenance.
Missing brick in the original construction have been left to show where the wooden scaffolding was attached.
From the walkway very near the top of the spire, an enormous vista opens up over downtown Topeka, known hereabouts as "Top City". I believe you can see California from here!
This was for years the largest grain elevator in the country.
The exterior dome and much of the roof of the building is clad in copper, which will eventually turn that special green color.
Back down on the ground floor, with wobbly knees, we laid down on the marble floor to get an ant's eye view of the rotunda, with the 2,000 lb chandelier in the center.
The Senate Chamber is very ornate, with carved wood and ornate plaster work. The copper columns are part of the heating/cooling system. The are hollow, and allow either warm or cool air to be drawn into the chamber! This is an original design feature from pre-electricity days when gravity and the laws of physics governed air movement.
Donna and Mary directed the Sargent-at-Arms to remove the riffraff from the room!
The House of Representatives room is much larger, reflecting the larger number of representatives, but is much more subdued in decoration.
We were not allowed to stay here very long either!
On our way to the Supreme Court, we noticed that the doors all had intricate hinges installed.
This room is no longer used for active Supreme Court sessions, that having been moved to a larger venue in another building, but it continues to be used as a committee-meeting room. Paintings of justices hang on the walls, and the room is maintained in original condition.
In what was once the state Law Library, but is now a public library, Donna took a quick break from walking across the glass floor. The glass floor was a way to pass light from outside windows down to the lower floor of the library.
We soon arrived at the Governor's Reception Room and Office.
The Governor's assistant, Zoie, graciously allowed us to look around.
The Reception Room is adorned with a Buffalo hide draped across a unique double-facing desk. The desk is designed to be used by two people who can easily coordinate on their work. Above the desk is a Buffalo head, matched on an opposite wall by a fossil of an ancient dinosaur found in western Kansas.
Back in the main corridors, our tour guide explained that this painting of John Brown includes much of Kansas' history. On the left, thousands of pioneers braved harsh weather to reach their dream land. On the right, prairie fires signal the beginning of the Civil War, and in the center, John Brown, with Bible in one hand and a Beecher rifle in the other, campaigns for Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state, which it later was. Brown believed that armed insurrection was the only way to abolish slavery, and during the "Bleeding Kansas" conflicts led, with his sons, armed attacks on pro-slavery residents. Justifying his actions as the will of God, Brown soon became a Northern hero and enlisted a small "army" of insurrectionists who attacked and occupied the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry in 1859. The goal was to obtain arms to use in a slave rebellion, but Brown was captured and later hanged.
It is generally conceded that the Civil War actually began with John Brown which resulted in some eleven million deaths and casualties, shown at the feet of John Brown.
The Capitol Building contains a maze of stairs with intricate carvings everywhere.
Beautiful! Kansas should be very proud!
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