Prairie Museum of Art and History
Prairie Museum of Art and History
Location: Just off I-70 on the south edge of Colby.
Contact: 785.462.4590
Fee: Yes
Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster. Please do not use without permission.
Said to be the largest barn in
Kansas, and measuring 66 feet wide, 114 feet long, and 48 feet
high, the Cooper barn is an impressive sight.
Constructed in 1934 near Rexford as part of the Foster Farms operation, the
grand old barn was moved to the museum grounds and today holds numerous
artifacts and displays about pioneer life on the plains of Thomas County.
Visitors are also allowed to climb to the old hay loft. If you stand quietly, you can hear the wind as it makes its melodious sound against the old barn boards, or could it be the ghostly sounds of one of the many barn dances held here in years past....
In
addition to the Cooper barn and several other historical
outbuildings, the museum is home to the massive Kuska Collection. So
extensive was their collection of, well, just about everything, that only about
five percent of the items are on display at any one time. Glass, dolls,
toys, coins, wedding dresses, you name it, the Kuska family collected it.
In 1975 the Kuska Foundation donated the family's collection to the people of
Thomas County. In a addition to the Kuska collection, the museum also
hosts traveling exhibits of all descriptions.