High Plains History
Tuesdays: during Morning Edition (6:45 & 8:45 AM CT) & All Things Considered (4:44 & 6:44 PM CT).
Take a few minutes to step back in time and explore the historical events, places, persons, social movements, and humorous incidents from the centuries of human settlement on the High Plains. High Plains History is written by Skip Mancini with the assistance of historians, historical societies, and museums from across the region. It's produced by Skip Mancini, Lynn Boitano, and High Plains Public Radio.
Have a historical event you'd like to hear about on this show? Contact Lynn Boitano at lboitano@hppr.org, or call (800) 678-7444 to get in touch!
Fall 2025
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Baca County in Southeastern Colorado has a colorful history that includes a wide diversity of cultures, landscapes, and ownership. Around 1000 A.D., a culture of hunter/gatherers named Apishapa (uh-PISH-uh-puh) roamed the grasslands and desert-like terrain. They fished in the rivers and streams that had carved out rock-lined canyons, and gathered seeds and grains from the High Plains. They left behind pictures, etched into the canyon walls, and their civilization was ultimately replaced by the nomadic Plains Indian tribes. -
This remembrance first aired on HPPR in 2019.Hello, I’m Dennis Garcia. I was born in 1951 in Garden City, Kansas. Even in a small town like Garden City, we get so busy we don’t see things that impact our daily lives. For me, it was the railroad. I’m one of 10 kids raised in a small wood framed house. Our home stood alongside the Santa Fe Railroad’s main line that went through town. We lived so close that by the time I was 10, I could throw a rock from my backyard and easily reach the tracks. -
When homesteaders left their forested hillsides of the East and arrived on the treeless plains, they must have wondered what in the world they would use to shore up the face of a dugout, put a fence around their land, or confine a milk cow. With few trees in sight to be used for lumber and fence posts, the new arrivals in one area of Kansas looked beneath their feet and found unlimited resources in the limestone that lay just below the topsoil. -
The founding of Amarillo and the city’s subsequent success as a center of trade and commerce in the Texas Panhandle was largely due to the coming of the railroads. In addition to bringing settlers and supplies to the vast grasslands of the Panhandle-Plains, the railroad was also responsible for naming the city. -
Black Sunday refers to a catastrophic dust storm that struck on April 14, 1935, during the Dust Bowl era in the United States. This event is recognized as one of the most severe dust storms in American history. -
What is now recorded as the last lynching in Kansas was, in April 1932, referred to by newspapers across the country as ‘justice’ for the brutal murder of a child. Richard Read, a Thomas County man, abducted eight year old Dorothy Hunter near the schoolhouse in Selden, where she had returned to pick up her lunch pail. -
What began as a grouping of canvas tents along the Canadian River in Hemphill County, Texas became the hub of rail traffic in the northern panhandle for more than fifty years. -
Many early day settlers came to Western Kansas via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and in the 1870’s and early 1880’s they were often deposited in Kinsley. This being the farthest rail point west, their journey continued by team and wagon as they followed dreams of homesteading in a new land, often with newfound freedom. Hodgeman County offered open country and new beginnings for several groups of settlers. -
The settlement of the American West often relied on ‘boom or bust’ events. Years of good weather could bring bumper crops that enticed would-be farmers to try their hand at homesteading, and the discovery of precious metals brought hoards of the hopeful to the gold fields of Colorado and California. -
The saying, “when life gives you lemons, then make some lemonade” must have been in the mind of Frank ‘Pop’ Conard as he surveyed the tragedy and heartbreak of the Dirty Thirties. Born near Butler, Missouri in 1885, Conard learned photography skills by helping his brother at his studio in Lacrosse, Kansas. In 1914, he and his wife Mabel moved to Garden City, where they set up their own photo shop.
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Baca County in Southeastern Colorado has a colorful history that includes a wide diversity of cultures, landscapes, and ownership. Around 1000 A.D., a culture of hunter/gatherers named Apishapa (uh-PISH-uh-puh) roamed the grasslands and desert-like terrain. They fished in the rivers and streams that had carved out rock-lined canyons, and gathered seeds and grains from the High Plains. They left behind pictures, etched into the canyon walls, and their civilization was ultimately replaced by the nomadic Plains Indian tribes. -
This remembrance first aired on HPPR in 2019.Hello, I’m Dennis Garcia. I was born in 1951 in Garden City, Kansas. Even in a small town like Garden City, we get so busy we don’t see things that impact our daily lives. For me, it was the railroad. I’m one of 10 kids raised in a small wood framed house. Our home stood alongside the Santa Fe Railroad’s main line that went through town. We lived so close that by the time I was 10, I could throw a rock from my backyard and easily reach the tracks. -
When homesteaders left their forested hillsides of the East and arrived on the treeless plains, they must have wondered what in the world they would use to shore up the face of a dugout, put a fence around their land, or confine a milk cow. With few trees in sight to be used for lumber and fence posts, the new arrivals in one area of Kansas looked beneath their feet and found unlimited resources in the limestone that lay just below the topsoil. -
The founding of Amarillo and the city’s subsequent success as a center of trade and commerce in the Texas Panhandle was largely due to the coming of the railroads. In addition to bringing settlers and supplies to the vast grasslands of the Panhandle-Plains, the railroad was also responsible for naming the city. -
Black Sunday refers to a catastrophic dust storm that struck on April 14, 1935, during the Dust Bowl era in the United States. This event is recognized as one of the most severe dust storms in American history. -
What is now recorded as the last lynching in Kansas was, in April 1932, referred to by newspapers across the country as ‘justice’ for the brutal murder of a child. Richard Read, a Thomas County man, abducted eight year old Dorothy Hunter near the schoolhouse in Selden, where she had returned to pick up her lunch pail. -
What began as a grouping of canvas tents along the Canadian River in Hemphill County, Texas became the hub of rail traffic in the northern panhandle for more than fifty years. -
Many early day settlers came to Western Kansas via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and in the 1870’s and early 1880’s they were often deposited in Kinsley. This being the farthest rail point west, their journey continued by team and wagon as they followed dreams of homesteading in a new land, often with newfound freedom. Hodgeman County offered open country and new beginnings for several groups of settlers. -
The settlement of the American West often relied on ‘boom or bust’ events. Years of good weather could bring bumper crops that enticed would-be farmers to try their hand at homesteading, and the discovery of precious metals brought hoards of the hopeful to the gold fields of Colorado and California. -
The saying, “when life gives you lemons, then make some lemonade” must have been in the mind of Frank ‘Pop’ Conard as he surveyed the tragedy and heartbreak of the Dirty Thirties. Born near Butler, Missouri in 1885, Conard learned photography skills by helping his brother at his studio in Lacrosse, Kansas. In 1914, he and his wife Mabel moved to Garden City, where they set up their own photo shop.
