Kansas History - Forthcoming issue
Summer 2025
(Volume 48, Number 2)
“‘An Industry that Will Combine Pleasure with Profit’: The Foundations of Fisheries Management in Kansas, 1877-1929”
by Adam Hodge
Fisheries management is an overlooked facet of Kansas history. Yet, following the creation of the state’s fish commissioner position in 1877, the State of Kansas invested more and more resources in advancing recreational fishing. In doing so, it enjoyed considerable support from angler’s clubs, railroads, and newspapers. Kansas was certainly no angler’s paradise in its natural state, yet proponents of fishing nevertheless insisted on making it into one via pond and lake construction, the artificial propagation of fish in hatchery facilities, and the widespread distribution of those fish. To facilitate this, the commissioner imported fish raised in hatcheries in other states via rail before establishing a state hatchery at Pratt in 1903 and purchasing a fish car named Angler No. 1 to distribute fish in 1906. The fish and game department as well as its supporters also urged the state legislature to enact laws to protect fish populations from overharvest and their habitats from abuse. While the department acted on the best information available at the time, prevailing social values that favored certain species and practices, as well as the fact that fisheries science was then in its infancy, ensured that it made some mistakes. Nevertheless, through trial and error it laid a foundation for fisheries management in Kansas by stocking fish, constructing or altering waterbodies, combating pollution and siltation, and other activities. For better or for worse, then, the first fifty years of fisheries management in Kansas transformed aquatic ecosystems across the state.
“Mexican Roots on Kansas Soil: Pedro Sandoval’s Life in Southwest Kansas”
edited and introduced by David Solis and Marco M. Macias
In our last installment on this series of the experience of Mexicans in Southwest Kansas, we turn to an interview with Pedro “Pete” Sandoval, conducted by Robert Oppenheimer on July 9, 1981. Sandoval recounts his family’s migration from Mexico to Garden City, Kansas, tracing their journey through labor circuits involving the sugar beet fields of Colorado and the Santa Fe Railroad. The interview provides valuable insight into the harsh living conditions Mexican families faced, including periods spent living in boxcars and improvised housing near railroad tracks. Sandoval reflects on the economic challenges, racial discrimination, and educational barriers encountered by migrant communities, while also emphasizing the importance of Catholic faith, mutual aid, and cultural resilience in maintaining identity and cohesion. His memories underscore how Mexicans families survived, adapted, and thrived in an often-hostile environment. As both a personal narrative and a broader socio-historical document, Sandoval’s testimony is a critical contribution to the formation of Mexican American identity and community in the rural Midwest.
“Echoes of Oz: Recent Filmmaking in Kansas and the Great Plains”
edited and introduced by Thomas Prasch
Kansas and the Great Plains continue to fascinate audiences, just as they have done since The Wizard of Oz debuted on the big screen in 1939. However much Kansans might groan at yet another “not in Kansas anymore” comment any time we cross a state line, we all know how central The Wizard of Oz remains to our state mythology. But Kansas films extend far beyond Oz. In this series of film reviews, part of our biennial series in Kansas History, scholars from across the nation discuss other important films and TV shows connected to Kansas and the Western experience. Reviews range from blockbusters like Killers of the Flower Moon and Wicked, to independent documentaries on the Menninger complex in Topeka, civil rights activist Alvin Brooks, and the police raid on the Marion County Record, among others.
In Memoriam
Book Reviews
Book Notes
