Johnny Kaw Statue - "Scythes Matter" - Manhattan, KS
N 39° 10.805 W 096° 34.420
14S E 709579 N 4339565
This 30-foot tall statue of fictional character Johnny Kaw is located in Manhattan City Park in Manhattan, Kansas, USA. Zippy had a conversation with Johnny back in 2005.
Waymark Code: WMC8AQ
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 08/07/2011
Views: 19
"A 30 foot tall statue of Johnny Kaw, the Pioneer Kansas Wheat farmer, stands in the Manhattan City Park. The statue was constructed in 1966, eleven years after the Manhattan Centennial celebration that inspired George Filinger to write the story of Johnny Kaw.
"The 1955 centennial committee had trouble getting people and the media interested in Kansas history. Filinger, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University, believed that a tall tale character might spark interest. He created Johnny Kaw to be Kansas' answer to other heroes like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill.
"Johnny created the Kansas landscape, geography and pioneer trails. He dug the Kaw River Valley, planted wheat, invented sunflowers, and grew giant potatoes. Johnny even controlled the weather, lopping the funnels off tornadoes and wringing out the clouds to end droughts. His pets were the wildcat and the Jayhawk, who, though fast friends, enjoyed a good scrap now and then. The result of their fights was the Dust Bowl.
"Johnny didn't take kindly to Paul Bunyan tromping down his wheat so he had quite a fight with the other big fellow and used his nose to plow the Mississippi River Bed. He even went west and helped Finn McCool dig the Grand Canyon and then piled up the rubble to form the Rocky Mountains.
"Filinger had a fine tall tale imagination and his stories captured the interest of people across the state. Johnny was intended to be a Kansas figure, not simply a local Manhattan one, and he was careful to include as much of Kansas as he could."
-- Source
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