For decades, Tobe Zweygardt guided busloads and carloads of visitors through the Arikaree Breaks in northwest Kansas – an area reminiscent of a sort of miniature Grand Canyon.
As The Wichita Eagle reports, Zweygardt, who also welded and sculpted signs from old farm and implement parts and marked routes along the breaks, died Sunday at the age of 101.
Zweygardt was a farmer by birth and by trade, but when he was growing up, he spent much of his time exploring the breaks and other areas in Cheyenne County. Some of his exploits resulted in interviews with early pioneers, who provided him with a history lesson about the area, including a story from 1864, when Cheyenne Indians gathered to heal and mark the site of their prayer grounds, shortly after the Massacre of Sand Creek.
A sculptor, Zweygardt crafted an Indian on horseback, a tepee and buffalo and set them on the hills near Cherry Creek, west of St. Francis, where he lived.
A funeral service honoring Zweygardt is being held there on Sept. 20 at 10:30 a.m.
