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THE AMAZING 100 MILES AND ANCHORS ON THE PLAINS
The region's bookends only recently opened (1999). The Sternberg Museum, which in October welcomed its 100,000 visitor after being in business for about six months, houses almost four million examples of fossils from a period 81 million years ago when the area that is now Kansas was under the vast Crustaceous Sea. The examples represent the disciplines of paleontology, geology, history, archaeology and ethnology, botany, entomology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology and mammalogy. The Museum contains the third best collection of flying reptiles in the world. It has some of the most complete mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in any museum and houses the unique Fish-Within-A-Fish.
It was in Ellsworth County that Charles Sternberg became interested in fossils. It was a passion he passed on to his three sons, all of whom became world-famous paleontologists. One son, George Fryer Sternberg, went to Hays in the 1920s. He is considered the father of the Sternberg Museum, which started on the campus of Fort Hays State University. The Museum has a walk-through land and sea diorama of the Cretaceous period, with life-size models of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and other creatures of the Cretaceous complete with sound and motion. The Rolling Hills Wildlife Zoo for rare and endangered animals was the dream of Salina businessman Charlie Walker. It opened in October 1999. Residents include an Amur leopard, one of only 200 in captivity. Another 50 are in the wild. There is also a rare white rhino.
Between the museum and the zoo is a corridor with over fifty towns, each being a composite of unique culture, customs, art, architecture, history, commerce, cuisine, geography...and people representing these various heritages. Rolling Hills Zoo 625 North Hedville A 500 acre complex, the park is on the southeast corner of Hedville and State Street roads, west of Salina, and about a thirty-minute drive east from Ellsworth Rolling Hills Zoo web site
Rolling Hills Zoo is an educational nonprofit zoo in Central Kansas whose mission is the conservation and propagation of rare and endangered species. It is the home for 100 or more animal species with about half of them being threatened or endangered. Its other goals are education, research and exhibition. There are 14 endangered species including Bactrian camels, Amur leopards, a sloth bear, a desert tortoise, a ring-tailed lemur.
Walker, founder of Blue Beacon and Green Lantern chains of truck washes, gas stations and convenience stores, donated the land and some buildings for the park, which is operated by a board of directors. Walker is chairman of the board. The 95-acre park, modeled after the San Diego Wild Animal Park, will have more than two dozen buildings and areas dedicated to creatures such as chimpanzees, orangutans, camels (Cleo, the dromedary camel, is one of 40 white camels in the world), miniature donkeys, various reptiles, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches, exotic deer, gazelles, lemurs, black bears, sloth bears, cheetahs, lions, tigers, snow leopards, cougars, baboons and, eventually, various kinds of birds and elephants.
The rare Indian rhinos and southern white rhino from South Africa are among the special occupants of a large rhino barn where the posts of the pen are as thick as tree trunks and 14 inches apart. All are males awaiting suitable mates. There are about 5,000 southern white rhinos in the world, including nearly 250 in captivity. The Indian rhinos at the center are two of only 74 in captivity worldwide. They are the only institution in the state that offers two species of rhinos. White tigers, cougars, snow leopards, orangutans, chimpanzees and giraffes have new exhibit homes. There is a compound for leopards, tigers and other cats with a sort of bay window that extends into the habitat, giving a three-sided view of the enclosure. They are the only zoological park in the nation that has an all-male group of chimpanzees. Jane Goodall, world-renowned chimpanzee researcher, has visited the zoo and named it one of 16 such facilities in the world to be included in her ChimpanZoo research program. The two rare, white Siberian tigers, named Rana and Raja, are housed in a special exhibit at the Center and are among only 140 known to exist in the world. The tiger exhibit affords Rana and Raja a 15,000-square-foot outdoor yard that can be opened as one large yard or two smaller ones.
There is a chimpanzee and orangutan facility. A love match in the works concerns Rusa, a Sumatran orangutan on loan from a primate research center in Atlanta GA and a mate, Robbie, on loan from the Sedgwick County Zoo. The Sumatran orangutan, Robbie, is listed as endangered, because it's estimated there are only 7,000 left in the wild. Orangutan, which mean "Forest Man" in the Malay language, are different from chimpanzees, because normally they travel alone. Orangutans, chimps, and bonobos are referred to as great apes, and are the three primates most similar to humans, though orangutans aren't as closely related to humans as chimps, which share 99 percent of the same DNA with humans. Also unlike chimps...and humans...orangutans' big toes are opposable, which make climbing and hanging easy for them. Hopes are high that the snow leopards, Barbara and Boris, soon will breed, producing cubs. Visitors are able to walk through the exhibits in about 35 minutes, most stay for three to four hours. There is a restaurant and an education center. Visitors to the center, which is handicapped accessible, can ride a tram which winds around the grounds and through the various barns. There is a gift shop and public restrooms. The park will eventually open another 40 acres adjoining the current site. Exhibits scheduled for the next acres include lions, Kid's Country, a mixed African species exhibit, and it is hoped...gorillas. An additional 400 acres stands ready for herding animals and breeding areas.
The largest collection of mounted zoological specimens in the world has been acquired by the zoo. It is a more complete and extensive collection than the Smithsonian Institution has. On display will be the only known mounted dwarf blue sheep in the world, and the animal is extinct. The museum will be more than two football fields long, and the animals will appear in dioramas throughout the one-story museum. The collection has been assessed for tax purposes at $55 million. It should be open in the year 2002. The 500 acre complex parking lot can accommodate 600 autos and 15 tour buses. The park is planning for 150,000 to 200,000 visitors in each of its first two years of operation, with expectations for growth to 300,000 to 500,000 visitors annually. Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hays State University is unique among institutions of its size in that it has a large and internationally recognized museum. The Sternberg Museum of Natural History originated as two separate entities. The first of these, the Sternberg Memorial Museum, was best known for its exhibits but housed extensive paleontological research collections as well as other materials. The other entity, the Museum of the High Plains, developed its reputation as a result of its research collections of plants and animals and the professional activities of its staff. The two separate museums were merged as the Sternberg Museum of Natural History on July 1, 1994, to facilitate more efficient strategic planning and more effective educational programming in a new museum building near Interstate 70 highway. The new Sternberg Museum opened in March 1999.
The unique feature exhibit is a 10,000 sq. ft. walk through diorama. Visitors will walk through the Kansas Sea, exploring the environment that produced the rocks and fossils of western Kansas. On display will be the fossils for which the museum is famous, including the 14 foot long "fish within a fish." Children will be able to enjoy a hands-on experience in the Discovery Room. Specimens from the museum's collection are included along with live animals and will be able to participate in a dinosaur dig. |
