Rex Buchanan
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Residents of Morris County are working to identify and preserve the spot where the Santa Fe Trail crossed Rock Creek, about five miles east of Council Grove. Preservation efforts are being helped by a grant from the National Park Foundation. Commentator Rex Buchanan recently explored the area, which has changed considerably since the time when thousands of wagons traveled through the Flint Hills.
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Kansas is famous for its fossils. One of the best known is the "fish inside a fish" fossil. Commentator Rex Buchanan tells us about another Kansas fossil, a recent discovery that has changed the way scientists look at birds and even evolution.
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Bird species around the world migrate thousands of miles each year. Despite lacking a smart phone and Google Maps, they still manage to get where they're going. North on the Wingis a new book about songbirds and their migration along the Mississippi River. That may be some distance from Kansas, but Commentator Rex Buchanan says even bird-lovers from this neck of the woods will enjoy reading the book, written by Bruce Beehler.
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The Arkansas River is the state's third-largest river. But in many places, the lack of water can make it hard to tell it's a river at all. Max McCoy, journalism professor at Emporia State University, recently took a trip down the Ark - more than 700 miles of it - and then wrote about it. Commentator Rex Buchanan tells us about this new book: Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River.
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Water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer have been in decline for decades. Irrigators have been pumping out water faster than it can be replaced. But experts say there may be a way to reverse this trend. Coming up on KPR, Commentator Rex Buchanan tells us about efforts to save the vast reservoir... before the wells all run dry.
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Baseball season is still months away. But two recent books and a local documentary about hometown baseball teams in Kansas have Commentator Rex Buchanan dreaming of spring training and the summer sport known as America's pastime.
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Commentator Rex Buchanan reviews a new edition of the book, Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Buchanan says this book, by Michael J. Everhart, is the most comprehensive and authoritative book on animals from the ancient sea that, millions of years ago, covered what is now the state of Kansas.
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Ever spend a cold and windy night in a cabin at Lake Scott State Park? Commentator Rex Buchanan did. And then, he wrote about it.
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Where's a good place to get a drink? A new book, titled Expedition of Thirst, reveals more than 150 breweries, wineries and distilleries in Kansas and western Missouri.
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Even before it became a state, Kansas has been a battleground over civil rights. Some of the state's civil rights history is on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.