Johnny Kaw
Encyclopedia
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
settler and the subject of a number of Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack figure in North American folklore and tradition. One of the most famous and popular North American folklore heroes, he is usually described as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill, and is often accompanied in stories by his animal companion, Babe the Blue...
-esque tall tale
Tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely...
s about the settling of the territory.
The legend of Johnny Kaw was created in 1955 by George Filinger, a professor of horticulture at Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
, to celebrate the centennial of Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...
. The stories were initially printed in the city newspaper, The Manhattan Mercury, during the centennial and later collected into a self-published book by Filinger, who created Kaw to be Kansas' answer to other heroes like Bunyan and Pecos Bill
Pecos Bill
Pecos Bill is an American cowboy, apocryphally immortalized in numerous tall tales of the Old West during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico, Southern California, and Arizona. Their stories were probably invented into short stories and book by Edward O'Reilly in the...
. Elmer Tomasch of the Kansas State University Art Department provided ink drawings to illustrate the stories and the book.
Fiilinger's stories related how Johnny Kaw created the Kansas landscape, geography and pioneer trails. Kaw was said to have dug the Kansas River
Kansas River
The Kansas River is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwestern-most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwestern-most portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its name come from the Kanza people who once inhabited the area...
Valley, planted wheat, invented sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s, and grown giant potatoes. Kaw even controlled the weather, lopping the funnels off tornadoes and wringing out the clouds to end droughts. His pets were the mascots for the two state universities: a wildcat
Kansas State's Willie the Wildcat
Willie the Wildcat is the mascot for the Kansas State University Wildcats. He is not to be confused with the mascot for Northwestern University, also named Willie the Wildcat.-History:...
and a jayhawk
Jayhawk
For the origin of the term, see JayhawkerJayhawk may also refer to:-Vehicles:*HH-60 Jayhawk, US Coast Guard medium range recovery helicopter *T-1A Jayhawk, twin-engine jet trainer used by the US Air Force...
, who enjoyed a good fight. The Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
was said to be a result of their fights.
Filinger's book was not republished after 1969, but Kansas author Jerri Garretson released a children's picture book about Johnny Kaw in 1997. Her book was illustrated by another KSU art instructor, Diane A. Dollar. A color edition of the book was published in September 2011 and the original B&W version was included in the 2008 anthology, "Kansas Tall Tales."
Statue
A 30 feet (9.1 m) statue of Johnny Kaw holding a scytheScythe
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...
stands in the city park in Manhattan, Kansas . It was constructed in 1966 at a cost of $7,000. All materials and labor were donated, and contributions were made by local citizens who hoped that the statue would establish Johnny Kaw as a local legend and would prove to be a roadside attraction
Roadside attraction
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road, that is frequently advertised with billboards to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere else, rather than being a final or primary destination in and of themselves. The modern...
. The statue is constructed of concrete over a steel beam framework. The design was intended to withstand wind and weather and be easy to maintain.
The statue was featured in a Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy is an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. The character of Zippy the Pinhead initially appeared in underground publications during the 1970s...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
on September 17, 2005.