Things to Do

Hiking, biking, trail rides, photography, and adventure

Festivals & Events

Don't miss the annual Peace Treaty Festival

Where to Stay

AirBnB's, guest ranches, hotels and campsites

Things to
Do

Festivals
& Events

Where to
Stay

MENUMENU
  • Events
        • View Events Calendar

          Next 5 Events:

          Loading...
          No events listed.
        • Peace Treaty Festival​
          Last Weekend in September

          The annual Peace Treaty Festival is fun for the whole family, with a weekend full of signature events, shopping opportunities, craft vendors, and kids' activities. Every three years, the festival includes the Peace Treaty Pageant and many more activities.
          Learn More
  • Events
  • Where to Stay
    • Gyp Hills Guest Ranch
    • The Bunkhouse Bed & Breakfast
    • Kiowa Motel
    • Copa Budget Inn
    • Cozy Gyp Hills Airbnb
  • Things To Do
        • Arts & Entertainment
        • Family Activities
        • Festivals & Events
        • Food & Drink
        • Hiking, Biking & Trails
        • History
        • Hunting & Fishing
        • Leisure & Relaxation
        • Lodging & Camping
        • Outdoor Activities
        • Shopping
        • Sightseeing
        • All Activities
        • Peace Treaty Festival​
          Last Weekend in September

          The annual Peace Treaty Festival is fun for the whole family, with a weekend full of signature events, shopping opportunities, craft vendors, and kids' activities. Every three years, the festival includes the Peace Treaty Pageant and many more activities.
          Learn More
  • Highlights
Facebook-f Instagram Twitter

Hatchet-Wielding Carry A. Nation Began Her Saloon-Smashing Career Living in Medicine Lodge, Kansas

Carrie A. Nation is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas People, and Medicine Lodge is proud to have her as a part of Medicine Lodge history. One of the main attractions in the Medicine Lodge area is The Stockade Museum & Carry Nation Home.

The Stockade Museum & Carry Nation Home

The Carry Nation Home is a museum housed in the home where Carry lived from 1889 to the early 1900s. It’s also the home she was living in when she started smashing saloons. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in May 1976. It contains many photos from Carry’s life and other memorabilia of her crusade against alcohol. Other historical items owned and used by Carry include a pump organ, her antique writing desk, a walnut dresser, and an oak bed. The docent of the museum provides knowledgeable and vivid accounts of Carry’s life and legacy.

Carry Nation's Hatchet – Image source: kansastravel.org
Carry A. Nation's Home – Image source: kansastravel.org
Carry A. Nation's bedroom in the Carry Nation Home – Image source: Stockade Museum & Carry A. Nation Home Facebook page

Next door to the Carry Nation Home Museum is the Stockade Museum built in 1961. The stockade was built to closely match the original frontier stockade of of 1874. It houses historical artifacts and antique items that tell the story of Medicine Lodge, including the actual peace pipe used in the signing of the 1876 Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty. Despite being separately owned, one ticket grants the visitor access to both museums.

Medicine Lodge Stockade – Image source: Stockade Museum & Carry A. Nation Home Facebook Page

Carry’s Early Years

Carrie Amelia Moore was born in Kentucky in 1846. As a child, she suffered poverty, a mother with mental illness who often thought she was Queen Victoria, and her own poor health. Carry’s first husband Charles Gloyd, a physician and a Union solder, was an alcoholic. Her brief time with him gave her first-hand experience of the negative effects of alcoholism. Although she truly loved him, she left him after only a few months. His death in 1869 from alcoholism influenced her passionate activism protesting the deadly disease. 

In 1874, Carry married David Nation, a journalist, lawyer, and preacher. He was nineteen years older than Carry. They lived in Missouri and Texas before settling down in Medicine Lodge. In Medicine Lodge, David was the pastor of a Christian Church, while Carry ran a successful hotel.

Carry’s Career as an Activist

Shortly after moving to Medicine Lodge, Carry became involved in religious and community service, began lecturing against the tobacco and alcohol consumption, and founded a chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Carry began smashing saloons in an attempt to enforce the constitutional amendment that prohibited the sale of non-medicinal alcohol, as Kansas saloon keepers generally ignored this amendment. 

Between 1900 and 1910, Carry was arrested more than thirty times and suffered numerous physical assaults for destroying saloons with a hatchet while singing and praying in protest of alcohol consumption. The first saloon smashed by Carry was on June 1, 1900, in Kiowa, Kansas, twenty miles south of Medicine Lodge. She destroyed the bar, bottles of alcohol behind the bar, the cash register, mirrors, windows, and anything else she could. While smashing saloons, she struck a formidable pose dressed in all black, almost six-feet tall, and weighing 175 pounds. She called her work “hatchetations.”

Carry A. Nation Quote – Image source: Stockade Museum & Carry A. Nation Home Facebook Page
Carry referred to herself as “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn’t like.” Of course, this referred to the consumption of alcohol, but it also included things like women not having the right to vote, immodest women’s clothing, tobacco use, and gambling. She named her followers “Home Defenders” because she viewed their work as protecting the home from the negative impact of alcohol and other vices.
Carry's Home Defenders – Image source: kansastravel.org

Carry A. Nation’s Legacy

During her time, Carry was known as “Mother Nation” because she did a great deal to clothe, feed, and help the unfortunate, especially women and children. She tried to help prisoners in jail believing that alcohol was the cause of the inmates’ troubles. In 1901, she established a shelter for wives and children of alcoholics in Kansas City, which has been described as an “early model of today’s battered women’s shelter.” Her work, though eccentric, paved the way for two amendments to the United States Constitution: the 18th Amendment that prohibited the sale of alcohol and the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. 

Carry A. Nation – Image source: Stockade Museum & Carry A. Nation Home Facebook Page

Carry will always be remembered and celebrated as a part of Medicine Lodge history. Each year, during the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Festival, local actors of various generations reenact her hatchetation on the Red Dog Saloon in the Historical Night Show melodrama.

On your next trip to Medicine Lodge, be sure to visit the Stockade Museum & Carry Nation Home to learn more about this remarkable woman!

Latest Highlights

Loading...

Top 5 Athletic Hobbies of the Rugged Gyp Hills

The beautiful Gypsum Hills of south-central Kansas, is an unexpected, yet exciting destination for athletes who want to experience the beauty of the Scenic High Plains and the challenge of the rugged and remote landscape. Located just an hour and a half west of Wichita, the area’s rolling hills, gypsum...
Read more

Hatchet-Wielding Carry A. Nation Began Her Saloon-Smashing Career Living in Medicine Lodge, Kansas

Carrie A. Nation is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas People, and Medicine Lodge is proud to have her as a part of Medicine Lodge history. One of the main attractions in the Medicine Lodge area is The Stockade Museum & Carry Nation Home. The Stockade Museum & Carry...
Read more

Kansas Blogger Reflects on the Anderson Creek Fire in “A Few Miles West of Medicine Lodge”

In his poem, “A Few Miles West of Medicine Lodge,” Harold “Doc” Arnett contemplates the area’s devastation and recovery from the wildfires that burned tens of thousands of acres of land in south-central Kansas in March of 2016. This poem was published on Arnett’s blog, Reflections by Doc Arnett: Lessons...
Read more

The New Peace Treaty Festival Isn’t Really New at All

For years, the “Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty” has been equated with the grandeur of the annual Peace Treaty reenactment pageant. However, many other great activities occur during that final September weekend each year. In 2019, the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Association renamed the weekend “Peace Treaty Festival” to christen the...
Read more

Watch History Come Alive at the Peace Treaty Festival

The annual Peace Treaty Festival, established in 1927, is a spectacular celebration of diversity and culture! Attend the Peace Treaty Festival to both observe and participate in events and activities steeped in authentic Native American tradition. Where? Medicine Lodge, Kansas, amid the rugged, rust-colored Gyp Hills When? Friday, September 27–Sunday,...
Read more

The Red Hills of Kansas: Hidden Gems of Inspiration for Local Artists

The Gypsum Hills of south central Kansas is the prime location for seasoned artisans, those who dabble in taking photos, and everyone in between! Most people don’t realize what hidden gems the Gyp Hills of Kansas really are. Not only is this region a stunningly beautiful natural wonder, it is...
Read more
1 2 Next »

Stay Connected

Events

  • Annual Events
  • Family
  • Peace Treaty
  • Music
  • Outdoor

Activities

  • Restaurants
  • Hiking & Trails
  • Sightseeing
  • History

Follow Us

Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Envelope

© 2023 All rights reserved Barber County Economic Development

Contact Us

Suggest an edit