Update on Community Development Society Presentation

I just received word that my submission of a paper and presentation to the Community Development Society has been accepted. It is now time to get busy researching and writing on the community capitals in an ehtnohistorical perspective. I plan to look at societies like Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloan which encompasses several ethnic prehistorical regions (i.e. Chaco, Northern San Juan, Kayenta) and place the community capitals framework within these societies. I am wanting to see if the depletion of some or all of the capitals helped lead to abandonment.

New Webinar Series

The Heartland Center in collaboration with the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce a new webinar series with the theme Strategies for Community Prosperity. The five-part webinar series will begin in January and conclude in May with the following schedule and topics:

* January 21, 2010 Rural Communities Can Thrive in the 21st Century
* February 18, 2010 Entrepreneurial Coaching--From Crisis to Economic Growth
* March 18, 2010 Plowing New Ground--Refreshed Leadership Development for
Revitalized Economies
* April 15, 2010 Energized Youth--Energized Communities
* May 20, 2010 People Count--Rebuilding Rural Communities with People Attraction Strategies

Each webinar is will start at 12:00 p.m. and end at 1:00 p.m. The training team includes Milan Wall and Kurt Mantonya from the Heartland Center and Don Macke and Craig Schroeder from the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. The cost of each webinar is $59.99 but if you purchase the entire webinar series at one time, the cost is $250.00, a savings of $49.95.

For more details and registration information about this exciting webinar series, please visit the Heartland Center's webinar page at http://www.heartlandcenter.info/webinar_reg/

Community Development Society Presentation

Having an on-going interest in history, archaeology and cultural anthropology, I am excited about the opportunity to mesh these interests into an abstract for the next Community Development Society annual meeting, next July in New Orleans. I am sharing my abstract in order to elicit feedback.

Utilizing the Community Capitals Framework in an Ethnohistorical Context

The Community Capitals Framework is a versatile tool that can be used to map community assets, analyze how communities work, assess community capacities, program planning and evaluation of these programs. Much of the work to date has been on current community development praxis and theory with very little attention to a historical application. The framework can be used to help map historical capitals and explain how societies such as the ancestral Puebloan cultures in the American Southwest collapsed due to the losses of certain capitals, capitals that could not be replenished. This presentation is an attempt to place the community capitals in an ethnohistorical context and compare with contemporary native peoples to show the strong reliance of one community capital upon the others. Looking at past systems and societies and how they utilized their capitals may better reinforce our community development work today.

Grand Army of the Frontier

The Goal and Mission of the Grand Army of the Frontier is to honor the memories and achievements of the late Victorian-era military of all nations between 1858 and 1904, with a particular emphasis on American army on the Western Frontier between 1860 and 1900, though the pursuit and sharing of knowledge, and by actively participating in the hobbies of Cowboy Action Shooting, historical reenacting, living history programs, skirmishing, social events, and other activities while wearing appropriate military attire.

Every year the GAF holds and annual Grand Muster in one of the Departments. The past two years, the Department of the Missouri has hosted the event at Fort Hartsuff, near Ord, Nebraska. My persona in the photos is of a late 1870's buffalo scout. Firearms used include a sharps .45x2.1" case aka 45-70 and a Ruger single six in .44 wcf. Several stages were set up and the course of fire was typically 10 rounds through the rife and five rounds through the revolver. We received out first snow storm of the year and the temperatures were very cold which limited the number of courses the shooters got through. All in all though it was a great time with excellent authentic dutch oven cooking and meeting new people as well as catching up with old friends. For more information about the Grand Army of the Frontier checkout their website at http://www.grandarmyofthefrontier.org/

Next year's Grand Muster will be held in Lockhart, Texas

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum to Close :(

As you can tell from the title of my blog, I am a big Roy Rogers fan. I have never had the chance to go to this museum located in Branson, Missouri. The museum will be closing at the end of 2009 so there is still time to take the family. Below you can find the press release from the museum as well as the Roy Rogers Riders Club Rules and Roy Roger's Prayer. Places like this will be sorely missed.

I have been personally agonizing over how to start this letter. I guess I will start by saying thank you. Thank you for the years of love, support, prayers and loyalty to the Rogers Family. You, the fans, and our Board of Directors, are the ones who have kept our family's museum going for over 42 years. It has been a wonderful ride. After millions of visitors and countless stories of what Roy and Dale have meant to you, the Board of Directors have voted to close our doors of the Museum at the end of 2009. This has not been an easy decision. Many very emotional and financial issues have been addressed by all of us, as you can well imagine.

The decision to close the Museum has come after two years of steady decline in visitors to the Museum. A lot of factors have made our decision for us. The economy for one, people are just not traveling as much. Dad's fans are getting older, and concerned about their retirement funds. Everyone is concerned about their future in this present economy. Secondly, with our high fiscal obligations we cannot continue to accumulate debt to keep the doors open.This situation is one I have not wanted to happen. Dad always said- “If the museum starts costing you money, then liquidate everything and move on.” Myself and my family have tried to hold together the Museum and collection for over 15 years, so it is very difficult to think that it will all be gone soon.

What will happen to Roy Rogers, Jr and his family? For those of you that have heard I am retiring, nothing could be farther from the truth. My company, Golden Stallion, and its show tribute to Roy and Dale, will continue. I plan on taking the show to another venue in Branson. We are looking for space now. The show will also be available to travel around the country and take the message of Roy and Dale wherever we travel. I feel that this country needs the message that Roy and Dale always put forth, not only in their professional lives, but in their private lives as well.

The Museum will be open for business until December. We want everyone to have the opportunity to visit the Museum one last time to see the collection in its entirety. This will be your last chance to see Roy and Dale's collection. Tell your friends and encourage them to come, before we close. This will be your final chance!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Remember, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans will live forever in our hearts and minds, and will continue to ride across the silver screen through their movies. Every time you think of Roy and Dale, that warm feeling you have always felt, will always return.

Watch our website for further announcements and special dates.

I leave you all with Dad's favorite saying- Good bye, Good luck, and may the good Lord take a likin' to ya! See you in Branson, or on the road.

Love to all of you!
Happy Trails.
Dusty and Family


Contact Dustin Rogers
417-339-1900 Ext 231
dustin@royrogers.com
source: http://www.royrogers.com/announcement.html

Roy Rogers Riders Club Rules

1. Be neat and clean.
2. Be courteous and polite.
3. Always obey your parents.
4. Protect the weak and help them.
5. Be brave, by never take chances.
6. Study hard, and learn all you can.
7. Be kind to animals and care for them.
8. Eat all your food and never waste any.
9. Love God and go to Sunday School regularly.
10. Always respect our flag and country.

Roy Rogers Prayer

Lord, I reckon I'm not much just by myself,
I fail to do a lot of things I ought to do.
But Lord, when trails are steep and passes high,
Help me ride it straight the whole way through.

And when in the falling dusk I get that final call,
I do not care how many flowers they send,
Above all else, the happiest trail would be
For YOU to say to me, "Let's ride, My Friend"
AMEN source:http://www.phantomranch.net/bwestern/creeds.htm

Blogging with the iPod

Been away for sometime. Just returned from the Midwest Rural Assembly in Siox Falls, South Dakota. A great conference with numerous people involved in rural development and policy in attendance. Will write more about that and the trip to Fort Robinson state park soon.

First Few Days in Memphis, Tennessee

Arrived in Memphis on Saturday for the 41st Annual International Conference of the Community Development Society (see previous post for more details). Saturday was the tourist day and have found Memphis to be much more than I expected. The people are friendly, the town has a lot of history and the food is excellent. Beale Street is something that has to be experienced. I am told that it is akin to Bourbon Street in New Orleans but scaled down quite a bit. There are several bars and shops along the street and live Blues all over.

Saw the FedEx Forum where the Memphis Grizzlies play and Autozone Park where the Memphis Redbirds play baseball. They are the Triple-A farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals. They are back in town this week and hopefully will get to take in a game.

As far as the conference goes, this has been a good one for me. A lot of learning and sharing among friends and colleagues. the presentation that I co-chaired was on Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and was full of lively discussion. On Monday, I am attending some sessions then off to the Civil Rights Museum for a tour and dinner. Tomorrow is packed with sessions including a 6 hour tour of the Arkansas Delta which is one of the nation's leading logistical centers and producers of steel among others things. Can't wait for this experience!

The Gibson factory was still open but tours had stopped for the day. There are three factories in the United States and each one makes a specific style of guitar. The one here in Memphis makes the semi-acoustic and produces about 40 handmade guitars a day. The Nashville factory produces the electric guitars and the Bozeman, Montana factory makes the acoustic ones. May not get this tour in but will have to come back. Makes me want to get my guitar out of the closet and get to pickin. Finally, I am going to try to get down to the Southern Folklore Center.

Cowboy Action Shooting at the Cornhusker State Games

One of my numerous hobbies is shooting, specifically the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting. The idea is to dress in western or period correct attire and use guns of the time period. This is fun especially when you are building your persona. This can range from the B westerns to the Civil War and in between. The persona I am working on is that of a frontier scout in the years between 1874 and 1880.

The guns you choose should also be of the same period. For example my persona could carry 1873 colts or clones, a rifle such as an 1873 Winchester, Henry or Spencer to name a few. A lot of people also use a shotgun and these could be the 1887 lever action, the 1897 pump or earlier side by side.

You shoot several stages over the course of a day. They may be based loosely on actual gunfights or just made up. The targets are steel plated and the course of fire generally asks for 10 revolver, 10 rifle and four shotgun. You shoot for the best time and hope for no misses which count as a penalty. You can also get a procedural penalty if you don't fire in the correct pattern that the stage sheet calls for. For example if you are to Nevada sweep three targets left to right and you go right to left then there is a procedural penalty.

Rural Tour Blog : weblog

Rural Tour Blog : weblog

Shared via AddThis

Presenting at the Community Development Society

I will be presenting along with my colleague, Milan Wall at pre-conference workshop at the 41st CDS Annual International Conference in Memphis, Tennessee on July 26th, 2009. The full details about this workshop follows.Workshop Title: Attracting People to Rural Places: What We Know and What WorksIn an effort to increase leadership capacity related to a critical issue facing many rural communities, this workshop will address both research and best practices relating to responding pro-actively to rural population decline through “people attraction.” The session will begin with a description of the problem, specifically the long-term and continuous outmigration of, especially, younger people from rural to urban/suburban places. Workshop participants will be asked to share their own stories of outmigration from rural places and its impact on community vitality.The workshop will continue with a review of recent research indicating what is known about people who are moving to a very rural region of the Northern Great Plains (the Panhandle of Nebraska), what attracts them to this region and what would keep them there. This session of the workshop will be introduced through an interactive design that invites workshop participants to share their personal experiences or information they have gleaned about what brings people to their rural areas and what might motivate them to stay.The final session in this workshop will share information about best practices, that is, what communities are doing to attract and retain new residents, how alumni lists are being used and what website strategies are being utilized to promote area assets and to target specific audiences of people who are most likely to re-locate to a rural area.This workshop is proposed as a half-day, interactive experience for workshop presenters, who will take home valuable information they can use to examine their opportunities for attracting new residents to rural areas and for implementing affordable strategies in their communities or regions. It will be designed to increase leadership capacity by strengthening both skills and confidence in the area of people attraction. It will help community development professionals develop the capacity to guide communities in their design and implementation of workable plans to address the problem of rural outmigration.For more information about the Community Development Society and the rest of the conference, visit their website at comm-dev.org

Stories | True West Magazine - Preserving the American West

Stories | True West Magazine - Preserving the American West

Posted using ShareThis

Upcoming Training Event

Most of my day is spent at the Heartland Center for Leadership Development in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is a small non-profit that works with small communities and neighborhoods to help them establish leadership programs and build community and civic capacity. We also do a lot of rural community economic development. Annually, we conduct a training entiteld Helping Small Towns Succeed. The information about this year's workshop follows.

Helping Small Towns Succeed Tools for Community Surviva lInn on Barons Creek Spa & Conference Center Fredricksburg, Texas December 1-3, 2009. This year's content will cover:

• Clues to Community Survival
• Leadership Styles and Practices
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Branding Your Community
• Building Social Capital
• HomeTown Competitiveness

For more information and the full conference brochure, visit this site. http://heartlandcenter.info/documents/HSTS09flyer5-1-09edit_001.pdfYou can also contact the Heartland Center for additional details at (402) 474-7667 or email kmantonya@heartlandcenter.info

One of my Favorite Authors Passes Away

Taken from the Kansas City Star, June 26, 2009

EMPORIA, Kan. Don Coldsmith, a family physician who gained worldwide fame with a series of historical novels on Plains Indians, has died. He was 83.
Coldsmith, of Emporia, died Thursday at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., his wife, Edna, said. He had suffered a stroke June 20 after attending a conference of the Western Writers of America in Oklahoma City, she said.
Coldsmith was born in Iola in 1926 and served as a combat medic in the Pacific during World War II. He earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas in 1958 and practiced medicine in Emporia for three decades.
Coldsmith began work in the 1980s on what would become his 29-volume series "The Spanish Bit Saga." The novels chronicle the momentous change in the lives of Plains Indians wrought by the introduction of the horse by Spanish explorers.


I am a big fan of Don Coldsmith's work. I started reading the Spanish Bit saga along with my buddy Jerod back in college. I remember arguments ensuing trying to get him to finish up the next book so I could read it. As a Kansas native you could feel the presence of the state in his writing.

Ok I sat this blog up a couple of weeks ago with the intention of posting items of interest as a new years resolution. The purpose of this blog is to inform and educate as well as provide a few updates about my family. I have a variety of interests that revolve around the history or prehistory of North America. I was initially trained as an archaeologist at the State University of Kansas (that is Kansas State University for those of you east of the Kansas River). After acquiring my formal education there, I decided to return to safe confines of Southeast Kansas for job prospects and matrimonial intents. Neither of these worked out as my first job was a bovine fecal relocation officer. As for the matrimonial prospects, well that was to wait a little longer. Deciding I was a failure at both at the time I gathered up my possession (yes it is singular) and headed west, to Colorado. I digress here to put some order into my life history so that you might get a better grip on where I come from, who I am and where I am fixin to go next. Just remember I am a small town Kansas country boy trapped in Suburban life!

Another one of my goals is to help keep me thinking and writing as I have a series of poem both finished and unfinished that you can help complete. I have also started a historical novel based on a post-Civil War character that is trying to find his way back home. It is entitled the Kansan. Enjoy.
June 1970:
Kurt is brought into this world by James and Cristy a couple of hippies who could find nothing to protest in Southeast Kansas. Kurt os fed green beans and gets his diaper changed. Life is good.

Summer 1976:
On our nation's bi-centennial, we celebrated this glorious occasion on a farm near Cleo Springs, Okalhoma. It was here that I was dared to pee on an electric fence for the first and last time. Thirty-two year later it still hurts. Now the thing that you also have to understand, that in Cleo, this is entertainment and whether you are a small town boy like me or a rancher like my cousin, there is still that insatiable desire to try and get someone to something foolish (if only I had a nickel for every time I did something foolish). As the saying goes...Fool me once shame one me, fool me twice, well then, shame one me. (well yes I did pee on that fence again).

Summer 1978:
James decides to move his family west. The booming metropolis of Baxter Springs is just too much for the familial serenity. After a 14 mile north and 8 mile jaunt we land in the up and coming community of West Mineral....yes there was an East Mineral but a bitter civil war between east and west rendered East Mineral to rubbish never to be seen or heard from again. Actually we moved to the neighboring suburb of Carona. West Mineral has all sorts of suburbs, Carona, Roseland, Stipville, 32 Camp, you get the picture. This is a major urban fixture in southeast Kansas. At Carona, Iwas sent to the neighboring MIT (Mineral Institute of Technology) for my formal education and ergo become a Mineralite from which I later learn that they have a vaccine for. Although I never did get the shot, I had a lot of fun growing up there.

December 1987:
Kurt shoots his first deer. A very nice doe on that last day of deer season. I soon discovered that I did not have my deer permit on me and raced home to both get my dad and said permit. In the process I roasted the transmission in our '74 Toyota Landcruiser. We eventually got the deer and Landcruiser home at a cost of $700.00. I figure the statute of limitations has run out on the KDWP citing me for no deer tag.

August 1987:
Kurt discovers that copenhagen can turn you greener than a Pioneer hat. I become a fan of the legendary snuff.

It is late so I leave you with this verse.

There are no cowboys or home on the range
Cattle aren't driven, they ride by truck and train

Trails like Chisholm and Shawnee are no more
They've been replaced by 80 and route 44