$30 per individual
Flint Hills Counterpoint invites you to explore some of the most beautiful natural springs of Kansas located in Marion County. Join our bus tour led by Rex Buchanan, Director Emeritus of the Kansas Geological Survey.
On the Tour:
We will load buses at Brooker Central Park in Marion and tour 6 springs in Marion County including Summervill Springs, Crystal Springs, Allison Springs, Coyne Springs, Spring Creek, and Marion Central Park Springs and Waterfall. Enjoy live music on the bus with Amy Farrand.
Musical Performance & Lunch:
At the mid-point of the tour, enjoy a performance by the Tabor Choir, led by Greg Zielke, while savoring Les Allison's homemade lunch of BBQ bourbon-dark brown sugar pork burnt ends, baked beans, potato salad, pickles, bottled spring water, or ice tea at Allison Springs (lunch included in ticket price.)
Conclusion of the Tour:
We will end where we started at Brooker Central Park where you can catch the panel talk "Water, Water, Everywhere". Featured guest speakers include Rex Buchanan, Jim Hoy, and Heidi Mehl.
Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, Humanities Kansas, and Prairie Muses
Meet Our Speakers:
Rex Buchanan is the Director Emeritus of the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas. A native of Kansas, he is the co-author of Roadside Kansas: A Guide to its Geology and Landmarks (rev. edition, 2010) and editor of Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils (rev. edition, 2010), both published by the University Press of Kansas; and co-author of The Canyon Revisited: A Rephotography of the Grand Canyon, 1923-1991, published by the University of Utah Press (1994). He served as Secretary of the Association of American State Geologists and chaired the Kansas Task Force on Induced Seismicity. In 2008 he was named a fellow of the Geological Society of America and in 2016 received GSA’s Public Service Award.
Heidi Mehl heads the Healthy Streams for Kansas Initiative where she works to recover the state’s streams and improve water quality, as well as directing burgeoning soil health and regenerative agriculture projects in Kansas. She has a strong interdisciplinary background spanning the fields of fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and human-environment interactions. Heidi received her Ph.D from Kansas State University with a dissertation title “A cultural ecology of riparian systems on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation: understanding stream incision, riparian function, and Indigenous Knowledge to increase best management plan adoption.”
Jim Hoy is director emeritus of the Center for Great Plains Studies and professor emeritus at Emporia State University, where he taught literature and folklore for 45 years. He is a Flint Hills native, reared on a small ranch near Cassoday. His book "Flint Hills Cowboys" (published by the University Press of Kansas in 2006) was named a Kansas Notable Book. His latest, "My Flint Hills," also from UPK, was released in September of 2020. Among his many books are, Plains Folk: A Commonplace of the Great Plains, My Flint Hills: Observations and Reminiscences from America's Last Tallgrass Prairie, and, with Tom Isern, Plains Folk: A Commonplace of the Great Plains.
This is a rain or shine event, please dress accordingly.