Exhibit showcases sights of picturesque Flint Hills

GARNETT — The raw-boned beauty of the Flint Hills will be on display in Garnett in early August.

A traveling exhibit of National Geographic Society photos, “The Flint Hills: A Kansas Treasure,” by Kansas photojournalist Jim Richardson will be on display Aug. 4 through Aug. 11 at the Walker Art Gallery, Garnett.

Admission to the exhibit will be free.

The photo exhibit has an impact for viewers, Joyce Martin, a member of the Walker Art Committee that oversees the gallery, said.

Martin said a curator at a gallery in Overland Park, where the exhibit is now, told her “‘you’ll be overwhelmed.’

“We’re really looking forward to having it in Garnett.”

The exhibit, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the Kansas Division of Travel and Tourism, is composed of 32 large-scale photographs of scenes in the Flint Hills. Richardson took over 11,000 photos in the Flint Hills for the project.

Janice Hodgson, a member of the Walker Art Gallery Advisory Committee, saw the exhibit last year at Cottonwood Falls, in the heart of the Flint Hills.

Hodgson urged the committee to try to bring the exhibit to the gallery, Martin said.

Martin filled out an application to the National Geographic Society.

Originally, the exhibit was supposed to be on display for only one year, she said.

“But it has been so popular that they decided to do a second year,” she said. “We’re very fortunate to get it here.”

The Flint Hills extend from near the Nebraska border south into Oklahoma. The Flint Hills National Scenic Byway stretches 48 miles along K-177 from Council Grove south through Strong City and neighboring Cottonwood Falls, then on to Cassoday.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, cattle rapidly replaced the buffalo, and homesteaders and ranchers displaced the Indians.

The honey-colored limestone provided building blocks, even fence posts, for settlers in the wood-scarce landscape.

Today, because its rocky soil has stubbornly resisted the plow, the Flint Hills region retains much of its untamed character.

“The Flint Hills beckons because they provide a spectacular landscape in our own backyard,” Richardson said. “The Flint Hills should never play second fiddle to our nation’s most recognized landmark landscapes.”

Richardson is a Lindsborg resident and has done more than 35 stories for National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler.

Richardson’s exhibit will be open during the Walker Art Gallery’s hours, which are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturday.

The Walker Art Committee will have a special reception 5:30  p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 7  in the Archer Room next to the gallery. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited.

The Walker Art Gallery is located within the Garnett Public Library, 125 W. Fourth Ave.