Kansas Sampler Foundation Center

Location:  2 miles South of Inman on Hwy K-61, then East 4 miles on Arapahoe Road. 

Nearest Towns:  Hutchinson, Inman

Contact:    Email--     marci@kansassampler.org            Website--   http://kansassampler.org

All photos are copyright H. J. Schuster.  Please do not use without permission.

The barn-like structure in the photo at right is the epicenter for a grassroots revival of rural Kansas Culture.

The Kansas Sampler Center is located on the Penner Farm in central Kansas where Mil Penner was born and raised, and continues to live with his wife V. Lee. The Penner family's  roots run deep in the Kansas soil.  For most of his life, Mil worked as a farmer, soil conservation contractor, and in irrigation equipment sales.  In 1983, he embarked on a new career in photography and writing.

After a five year stint as an Elementary School guidance councilor, Mil and V. Lee's daughter, Marci Penner (pictured in front of Sampler Center, left),  returned to Kansas.  Marci and Mil authored several guide books on Kansas, and during their travels of Kansas, and because of their ties to the land and rural culture, the Penners began to seek a way to actively preserve the rural culture and diversity of Kansas which seems to be slipping away.  Eventually, the Kansas Sampler Foundation, a non-profit corporation, began to take shape.  Over the period of about a year, the Penners distilled the basics of what defines rural culture into eight elements:  Architecture, Art, Commerce, Cuisine, Customs, Geography, History, and People.  These eight elements are present in all rural communities, and when combined they create the unique culture associated with each Kansas community.  Even a ghost town, gone without a trace, will reveal these traits to one who is willing to research the history of a location far enough. 

The sign above the small footbridge leading to the Sampler Center reads simply, "Preserve Rural Culture".  This short statement pretty much sums up what the Kansas Sampler Foundation is all about.  Our country has long had a split personality when it comes to the culture of rural America.   On one hand, it seems to regard rural areas as a cultural backwater, inhabited mainly by hicks and hayseeds with few redeeming values.  On the other hand, even the most sophisticated urbanite often yearns for a return to simpler times and the quiet existence that only small towns and rural areas  can provide.  In reality, rural culture has acted as the huge counter balance which keeps our society at large from disintegrating.  Working closely with the land is a humbling experience.  People here are tested and shaped by the tough Kansas land and the unforgiving Kansas weather.   In Kansas, everything, including it's culture, is tied to the land.

The Kansas Sampler Foundation produces seminars and programs designed to help small towns and rural areas to help themselves.  Another activity sponsored by the foundation is the "Kansas Explorer's Club".  Club members from all over the state share experiences and the excitement that comes from "seeing Kansas with new eyes", not to mention receiving an informative newsletter every month.  Anyone interested in becoming an explorer can get the details from the website listed in the "Contact" above.  If you have any interest at all in Kansas travel, it's the best $18.61 you'll ever spend.

Another activity sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation is the Kansas Sampler Festival, which is held annually.  What began as a book signing party at the Penner Farm has grown into a large and unique festival.  Since outgrowing the facilities at the farm (and besides, the alfalfa field which served as the festival grounds needed to be rotated to a different crop), the Sampler Festival has been hosted by  different communities around the state, rotating to a new town every two years.

Part county fair, part carnival, and part small town celebration, the Kansas Sampler Festival defies exact description.  It must be experienced.   Where else in the world can you eat Ostrich On-A-Stick, talk to Amelia Earhart, take a stage coach ride, and find out what there is to see in communities from all parts of Kansas; do all this and still be home by five?

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