BRAINERD, KANSAS
TIME, PLACE AND MEMORY ON THE PRAIRIE PLAINS
By Kevin Roe
http://www.rootinaround.com/brainerd/
Kevin Roe examines the ‘relationship between memory and place’. He is interested in ‘landscapes, architecture and the intangibles that make up a particular place’. Roe’s essay about a small town in Butler County, Kansas is intensely personal. His interest in Brainerd, Kansas began when he was at ‘an intellectual and emotional standstill’ with his life in New York City. He quit his job and in time-honored American tradition went ‘on the road’ heading West. His grandmother had spent some of her childhood in Brainerd, Kansas and after his visit to the area; Roe became ‘hooked on Kansas’.
The first settlers arrived in Brainerd in1855. The town was ‘officially founded’ in May,1885 shortly after the Ellsworth, McPherson, Newton and Southeastern Railroad Company finalized purchase of land. In the ‘first official week of existence’, 17 buildings were erected. By September, 1885, Brainerd had 180 buildings, 500 inhabitants, and was a thriving small community with 2 churches, a school, a bank, 2 hotels and a newspaper.
In 1887, the Rock Island Railroad announced that a new line would be built and would not be routed through Brainerd but would go though nearby Whitewater. By June 1889, 18 buildings ‘were readying for the move to Whitewater’. Brainerd was nearly completely evacuated and the population dwindled to around 50 people.
Kevin Roe began his research as an assignment for a joint American Studies/Architecture graduate course that focused on a study of ‘built form’ in Eastern Kansas. In an article in the Newton Kansan that the Brainerd site links to, Roe is quoted as saying he planned the Web site as a ‘birthday present for his grandmother’, Stella Weigand. On this web site, Roe tells about his own life and his personal reactions to the story of Brainerd. Perhaps because of the emotional aspects of his connection to Brainerd, the reader is drawn to an interest in this small community.
Roe’s background includes ‘nearly 12 years in journalism and advertising’. As a consequence, his writing style is smooth, fluent and easily readable. His personal enthusiasm is contagious. Roe does not adopt a historian’s scholarly attitude. Yet as evidenced by the use of sources and descriptions of his explorations and research, Roe has made a serious effort to get accurate information.
This essay touches but does not fully explore facts, questions and aspects of Brainerd history and Brainerd as an example of a western boom (and bust) town. Even in the area of architecture, he leaves us wondering. What kind of structures could be raised and dismantled so rapidly? What kind of effort was required to do this? Was there an organized approach to the erection and destruction of the town or was it the activity of a number of individual decisions? A comment is made by one resident that most of the buildings were intended for storage. Roe never points this out or elaborates on this. Why did the area attract Mennonites? What kind of farming was done in this region? What was the basis of the economy in the twentieth century? How did the community interact with the rest of the state during various stages of its history?
Roe does not pretend to be writing a history and downplays the historic significance of the rapid development and equally rapid abandonment of an entire town as a part of Western immigration phenomena that is inconceivable to those whose main goal is to settle and prosper in one place. Roe is more interested in memory than history. This is not an uncommon concern for present-day historians who investigate memory, public beliefs and ‘collective consciousness’ as possibly more significant to most people then factual history.
Roe emphasizes the importance of family and a sense of community. For most individuals, as Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen have documented in The Presence of the Past, family history is the most important history and can be the stepping stone to an interest in community, national and world history. Roe quotes one observer who believes the main reason Brainerd survived is the ‘strong family ties and values’. Many of the subsequent contributors to the Brainerd site have family ties to Brainerd or lived in the Brainerd area at one time or other. One correspondent, Don Brainerd, provides an excellent description of a boy’s life in Brainerd in the 30’s and 40’s.
The format of Roe’s web site is clear and navigation is simplicity itself. The type face is large and easy to read, in contrast to many cluttered websites that are visually overwhelming. Roe says in the Newton Kansan he deliberately made the site ‘user-friendly with big type and double spacing between the lines’. Within the section that contains Roe’s essay, there are links to images of various structures, views and maps of Brainerd. Where an image is available for a topic in the essay, the reference is highlighted and the image can be viewed while reading, or if it is preferred that the reading is not interrupted, the images can be ignored or viewed later. Roe notes that many of the photographs are from a slide show developed by a Brainerd historian, Agnes Harder. Underneath each image is a short descriptive comment. Images can be enlarged for easier viewing. The images themselves add to the mood of this story of a town that was abandoned.
The site includes an email component. A News section contains links to articles about the site and a link to a Yahoo discussion Forum on the site. The site includes an area for comments from readers. The site also includes downloadable files that are a boon to those who do not want to sit in front of a computer screen and read. Possible modifications with more advanced technology might change the character of the site but the addition of video clips or sound files of the interviews and perhaps a walking tour film of Brainerd would be interesting. Roe’s web design is excellent. It is straight-forward non-intrusive, and understated, almost elegant. The medium conveys the message and does not overwhelm it.
NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, words in quotes are from the Brainerd site.