Some might think of Kansas as a "flyover state" — one of those places you drive through or fly over on your way to somewhere else.
However, those who simply pass through without stopping miss so much of the rich history and friendly culture of the many small towns scattered throughout the rolling, windswept Kansas prairie.
Just as Wildcats love their alma mater Kansas State University, they also love the state of Kansas. Below you'll find grads who have used their purple pride, a K-State spirit and ingenuity to help revitalize the small towns they love. We think it's the perfect expression of K-State's ongoing land-grant mission to improve quality of life for all Kansans.
Gathering place: K-Staters and friends start hometown brewery
It’s a Saturday night in Council Grove, Kansas, and Riverbank Brewing is a busy place.
Warm, inviting lights twinkle overhead, and you can hear the sounds of conversation and laughter coming from inside the brewery, along with a football game playing on TV. If you’re thirsty, you can order a tall, cold glass of Riverbank’s signature “Waves” wheat beer — or one of the many other uniquely local brews on tap.
It’s the perfect spot for family and friends to gather on the weekend, taking a moment to slow down from the hecticness of life and enjoy a relaxing moment together.
This is exactly the sort of place that Pat Atchity ’07, Jesse ’08 and Deidre ’11 Knight, and Lindsay and Joshua Gant dreamed of when they first started talking about launching this brewery together. The five friends — three of whom are K-Staters — wanted to celebrate their love of community, craft beer and Council Grove, and Riverbank Brewing does just that.
“It’s consistent, constant work, but it’s not hard — it’s fun,” said Deidre of owning the business. “It’s the people — being able to just watch people enjoy themselves here, whether they’re families or couples or people traveling through town, it’s just so awesome to see people happy and enjoying themselves in our home and this place that we’ve put a lot of work into.”
Although these friends could have opened their brewery anywhere, there was never any doubt that Council Grove was the best place.
Joshua, Lindsay, Deidre and Jesse all moved to Council Grove about a decade ago, and while Pat lives in Kansas City, he also has a fondness for the small town.
During their travels across the country, the friends noticed that the small towns that were thriving had breweries in them. Council Grove is known as a community that loves outdoor recreation and a slower pace of life, and a brewery seemed like the perfect addition.
“We all agree that craft beer lends itself to community and conversation and collaboration,” Deidre said. “A lot of times in breweries and old beer halls, you see large tables with people from all walks of life sitting together, drinking beer together, playing games together. That was the kind of community that we wanted to build here in Council Grove where we live.”
A creative spark: K-Staters add color to their community through ongoing mural project
It all started with a simple idea about three years ago: painting one mural in Clay Center, transforming a blank wall into a giant canvas and bringing a vibrant splash of color to the town of around 4,000 located about 40 minutes from Manhattan.
Then donations started flooding in. And community excitement kept building. And now, the project has expanded to include 26 different mural projects throughout Clay County. Visitors bike from Manhattan to see the murals, or even drive to the town from other states. Busloads of children come to view the murals as part of field trips, hopefully inspired to return home and create art of their own.
“It's kind of been a whirlwind over the last three years,” said Brett Hubka '08, member of A Mural Movement of Clay Center and a community bank president. “It’s brought a lot of good publicity for Clay Center.”
“When we started just with a couple of mural projects, we didn't realize the scope that we would end up with,” said fellow committee member Jacob Lohrmeyer '07, a hospital materials director. “We didn't start out with the plan to add two dozen projects. We kept going as the fundraising kept coming in. And we kept having these great partnerships with businesses that wanted to become involved.”
According to Hubka, the seed that later grew into A Mural Movement was planted about five years ago when a K-State architecture and planning group visited Clay Center and inspired the vision of painting a mural on one of the downtown buildings.
After the creation of the first mural — a project championed by the local Rotary Club — a committee was formed to expand the vision and keep the various mural projects organized. Out of the seven-person committee, five were K-State grads, and five were also members of the local Rotary Club.
So far the community has collaborated with 17 different professional artists from seven different states. Artists from around the world have reached out and asked about opportunities to join the project, including an artist from Virginia who is wanting to paint a mural in every state. The murals encompass a variety of styles, ranging from pop art to photo realism to surrealism to Impressionism.
Over $250,000 has been raised for the project so far, and designs are a cooperative effort between the committee, the artist and the business owner where the mural will be painted.
“It seems like about every Sunday after church, we’ll drive by downtown and you'll see somebody else looking at the murals, especially now when the weather gets kind of nice,” Hubka said. “More often than not, those people have an out of state license plate, whether they're passing through town on [Highway] 15 or 24. That part of it's pretty rewarding. Otherwise, most of these folks probably would just pass right through Clay Center.
Returning to his roots: Scott Mueller ’84 transforms small town with grain bin marketplace
Drive through downtown Kingman, Kansas, and you’ll happen upon an unusual sight: a group of old grain bins sitting in the middle of town.
These structures — a familiar staple on small family farms — are no longer storing grain, however; they’ve been transformed by K-State graduate Scott Mueller ’84 into an indoor/outdoor marketplace called “The Binyard.” The repurposed grain bins are available to rent by the day, week or month, and have been used by vendors selling wares such as baked goods, clothes, candles, fresh produce and more.
“It’s just become more than I could have ever thought it would be,” said Mueller, who majored in agricultural economics and business at K-State. “I think that’s what small towns have to do; they have to take advantage of what makes them unique, whatever that is: their architecture, their history, their location. You’re not going to be another big city; that’s not what people want.”
The town of Kingman has always been close to Mueller’s heart. He grew up on a farm/ranch about 10 miles outside of town, and his father still lives there as a retired rancher.
During his visits over the years, Mueller said he started seeing changes to the town that weren’t necessarily positive, but also weren’t unique to Kingman. Many smaller communities were starting to experience a shift toward people doing business in larger cities, and small towns began to fade.
However, Mueller said he knew there was still a good core to be found in his hometown, and he didn’t want that to be lost.
After his first building on Main Street, Mueller decided to buy another dilapidated building and renovate it. The lot next to this building on Main Street remained open, though, and Mueller began to brainstorm ideas for a low-cost way to make this property viable.
That’s when he thought, “What if I got grain bins and put them like pods on this lot and made each one its own rentable store pop-up, and rent those by the day or the week? That was the genesis of The Binyard.”
The bins were just sitting on farms and were not viable for current agricultural use. Mueller set them up and added electricity, then his daughter helped him with the website and marketing. Vendors can now visit the website, thebinyard.com, and rent a bin for a block of time.
Note: The full version of this article originally appeared in the summer 2023 issue of our member-exclusive K-Stater magazine. Members can log in and read the article on our My K-State Gateway portal.
Dreaming big: K-State grad brings vision for world’s largest belt buckle to life in Abilene, Kansas
At dinner parties, Julie Roller Weeks ’06 loves to ask questions that get people talking.
One of her favorite go-to conversation starters is, “If you could build the world’s largest (fill in the blank), what would it be?”
However, as much as she loved hearing other people’s responses to that particular prompt, she never felt like she had a good answer herself.
That is, until she started on a quest to create the world’s largest belt buckle in Abilene, Kansas, where she serves as director of the local Convention and Visitors Bureau. The buckle has become an attention-grabbing, headline-producing, social media star, as well as a symbol of Abilene’s rich cowboy heritage and small-town pride.
“Abilene is known as ‘best historic small town to visit,’ which is great, but we can't just say ‘this is what we have,’” Roller Weeks said. “[The belt buckle] shows we aren’t sitting idly, still retelling our cowboy history, but we’re coming up with new ways to celebrate it and attract new and returning visitors.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, funding dried up and many towns and businesses suffered financially. Roller Weeks found herself with no staff and no budget but still a need to promote travel.
She knew she had to think outside the box, and so she started researching the world’s largest cowboy-themed objects. She saw a giant belt buckle and had the thought, “We can beat that.”
She reached out to artist and welder Jason Lahr, and pitched what she called “this crazy idea.” He was on board, and so she applied for — and received — a $22,000 state of Kansas Attraction Development Grant. To help raise money for the project, Abilene offered 100 commemorative replica belt buckles, drawing interest to the project from across the country.
It’s a popular photo op for both locals and out-of-town travelers, and it complements other attractions in the community, including a large spur, cowboy statue, 11 decoratively painted cowboy boots, and a series of murals.
“The response far surpassed my wildest dreams,” Roller Weeks said. “The amount of positive publicity we’ve received from this project is a beautiful example of how to make big things happen in a small town. It’s an inspiration to other communities. Everywhere I go, someone asks about the buckle and every day someone shares a photo of their visit online; if you drive by, you’ll frequently run into a visitor taking a photo. It’s just fun!”