Website Evaluation

Brainerd, Kansas: Time, Place and Memory on the Prairie Plains
(http://www.rootinaround.com/brainerd/)
Created by Kevin Roe, Reviewed September 18, 2004

Unsatisfied with life in New York City, Kevin Roe is drawn away from a job in journalism and advertising to his grandmother’s childhood home of Brainerd, Kansas. Brainerd experienced a boom with the coming of the railroad in 1885. A subsequent exodus of most of the town’s citizenry and commercial institutions occurred when the rail companies decided to build a new line a few miles west of town in 1889. Roe’s newfound ‘obsession’ with the town prompts him to explore questions of time, place and memory. In doing so, he has created a site that offers a light history of Brainerd, Kansas for those interested in the town.

Academic historians may take issue with Roe’s intentional avoidance of interpretation but this website is more appropriate for an audience with a non-academic interest in the history of the town. Roe originally began researching the town as part of an architecture project focusing on the Great Plains "to interpret the landscapes of towns, cities and rural areas ... so that we can learn more about ourselves and what we value." As such, his tone is academic but not prohibitive to the reader with only a passive interest.

A large portion of the site is dedicated to the memories of a few former and current residents of the town, including his grandmother. While primary sources are used to provide the historical background, the focus of the website is these memories which Roe cites as the inspiration for this project. The author openly admits that his reliance on the memories of Brainerdites is ‘academically unthinkable’ but he presents this portion of his research more enthusiastically and dedicates more space to it than his primary sources.

Roe’s website is structured in a very linear fashion, encouraging the visitor to follow a sequence of links that lead from introduction to conclusion. This makes it easy to navigate the site unless the user desires to jump to a specific part of the site, particularly in the ‘History’ and ‘Memories’ subsections. Roe’s amateur web design, devoid of corporate superfluity, creates a simple aesthetic that maintains the focus on his prose. One drawback to the site’s otherwise beneficial simplicity is the insertion of images as hypertext links. The viewing of the photographs in outside windows unnecessarily breaks up the reading of the text.

The site makes good use of certain new media that are appropriate to its audience. He offers printable versions of his site for those who would prefer not to read it on a computer screen. In addition, he offers a ‘guestbook’ that visitors use as a repository for their own memories of and commentary on life in Brainerd. His graphic offerings are limited to those that directly supplement his text and primarily include photographs and maps.

In all, the site provides an accessible and readable history of a town that may otherwise go largely unnoticed. Though it may not serve much use academically it certainly fulfills the purpose of preserving the memories of a group of citizens for a very general audience.