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        • 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.
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        • 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
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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 from Life and Living on September 30, 2019.

A Message of Healing and Recovery

Source: Kathie M. Rondeau

“A Few Miles from Medicine Lodge” is written from the perspective of an onlooker who stops while on a drive through the Gypsum Hills and remembers the Anderson Creek Fire of 2016. The message of Arnett’s poem is the ability that time has to heal all wounds. He paints a vivid picture describing the “unseasonable green” grass amidst the buttes and mesas that make up the landscape of the Gypsum Hills. He describes the “heavy cedars, barkless and gray” that serve as a bleak reminder of the savage wildfire of 2016. He then offers the reader the hope that, given enough time, pain eases and painful memories fade.

Despite the scars left by the terrible devastation caused by wildfires in this region, the Gypsum Hills are still breathtakingly beautiful.

A Few Miles West of Medicine Lodge

by Doc Arnett

A few miles west of Medicine Lodge,
an odd rising of red dirt looms up,
a showing of ancient waters carving the soft earth of gypsum.

A few miles south of One-Sixty and a quick look
might have some travelers
thinking they saw something like Arizona or Utah:
small buttes and little mesas trapping early shadows
and a lonesome black cow bellowing from the ledge
just below an old pickup truck strangely abandoned
high above the red grit road.

We park for a little while
and walk to the line of a barbed wire fence
staked to the edge of the universe.

Just beyond, heavy sod gives way to the bluff
that falls away for a couple hundred feet,
a sudden and unexpected transition
into miles and miles of open range,
a valley that runs to the horizon.

A strange year of heavy rains
running all the way from spring into fall
has stained the hills and slopes—
all other than rock and bare ground—
with an unseasonable green.

Except for these heavy cedars,
barkless and gray,
windward side charred with grim testimony
of drier times and darker days,
when wildfires swept their way,
driven by fifty-mile-an-hour winds,
fueled by three years of drought
and poured from the very spout of hell.

Given enough time, enough rain, enough seasons,
and even these monuments of pain
will ease into the long slope of vanishing memory.
Scars become nothing more than barely remembered blots of time.

Other shapings will move across the face of sod and stone,
each covering become part of history and home,
until we have gained some place
beyond the forming of fire and rain,
the whisperings of the wind.

The Anderson Creek Fire

Source: Kim Boggs Houser

The wildfire of 2016, named the Anderson Creek Fire, is the largest in Kansas history, and one of the largest ever in U.S. history. The blaze started in Oklahoma and spread north to Kansas, affecting more than 620 square miles of land between the two states. The mayor of Medicine Lodge at the time called for voluntary evacuations fearing that the blaze would reach the hundreds of homes and businesses in Medicine Lodge. Miraculously, there were no injuries or fatalities caused by the fire. Nine homes were destroyed in Barber County.

About the Author

Harold “Doc” Arnett is a Christian minister, a long-time educator, and, currently, the director of marketing and public relations at South Central Kansas Medical Center. On his blog, Reflections by Doc Arnett, which he has written for over ten years, he regularly posts uplifting, spiritual content on a wide variety of topics. His devotional writing has been featured in “The Quiet Hour,” “Daily Bread,” and “Fruit of the Vine.” He also writes a regular column for the Cowley Courier-Traveler called “Kansas Character” and has a published book of poetry entitled Tears & Prayers on Amazon.com. He is a native of western Kentucky and now resides in Ark City, Kansas, with his wife, Randa.

Latest Highlights

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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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