Rebecca Conard (Wichita State University): And that commission had the authority to spend its money on developing lake and parks for Kansas, state parks. And during the next few years, the outlines of that park system began to emerge with the establishment of state parks in Scott County -- which is now Lake Scott State Park -- Meade County and Crawford County.

In the post WWII era, there was tremendous public pressure, not just in Kansas, but across the nation, for more outdoor recreation areas. And in Kansas that leads to a substantial and very dramatic restructuring of the state park system. The Fish & Game Commission in the early 1950s begins a program to build more artificial lakes in Kansas. And that merges with a federal effort to build flood control reservoirs. And what that leads to is passage of another state law in 1955 that authorizes the Kansas Park and Resources Authority. Kanopolis State Park is the first state park established under the jurisdiction of the Kansas Park and Resources Authority, which had explicit authority for establishing state parks.

Ed Alvis: It was in 1958 that the department signed a lease with the Corps of Engineers to acquire the property there to develop the state park and it was dedicated in 1959.

NARRATOR: RETIRED REGION SUPERVISOR FOR THE KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE AND PARKS, ED ALVIS NOTES THAT ALMOST ALL OF OUR STATE PARKS ARE LOCATED BY FEDERAL RESERVOIRS.

Ed: In the early days it was cheaper and simpler to develop sites on water-based recreation sites in conjunction with the Corps of Engineers projects to develop the system of lakes and reservoirs in the state of Kansas and along about that time the Land and Water Conservation Fund came along to provide funding for acquisition and development of sites. And so we fell into that mode and used that money to develop what we have now. And as a consequence, ours is probably leaning more toward water-based recreation than almost any other state.

Rick Martin: Probably our biggest draw with the park would be the reservoir itself. Last year, our visitation here at Kanopolis was about 325,000. We're probably in the whole scope of things with all of the state parks between fifth and sixth, seventh in that neighborhood, for visitation. We are one of the smaller reservoirs, however the park itself, the number of acres in the park is one of the larger ones. Camping is naturally one of the big draws. Fishing, hiking, boating. We've got 26 miles of multi-purpose trails for horseback riding, mountain bikes and hiking. Around the area we've got about 13,000 acres of wildlife area.

NARRATOR: RICK MARTIN IS MANAGER OF KANOPOLIS STATE PARK. HE POINTS OUT THAT THE PARKS ARE IMPORTANT FOR THE PRESERVATION OF WILDLIFE, AS WELL AS SOME HISTORIC SITES.

Rick: In Horsethief Canyon there are some petroglyphs that are up in there, Indian carvings. We try and keep a close eye on that so that people don't get in and vandalize it. Throughout the wildlife area, there's several different locations where there's Indian burial mounds, W.F. Cody's signature in a rock down in Red Rock Canyon, just a variety of different things throughout the area. We do have Mushroom Rock State Park about 5 miles north of here. There's some sandstone creations, mushrooms just kind of pop up out of the ground. It's a separate park, but we maintain it out of Kanopolis State Park.

Rebecca: Kansas parks, like many parks in the Midwest, reflect some of the more interesting things about subtle landscapes. In other words, you are not confronted with monumental vistas and imposing geologic structures. What I think is interesting about parks is that there is this kind of quiet discovery of the landscape -- of a very subtle landscape. You can be walking across a prairie in Kanopolis State Park and then just quietly descend into this lovely little canyon that sort of takes you into an entirely different feel, a different place, essentially that has an entirely different atmosphere. The quietness is different there from the quietness up where the wind blows.

Ed: The money that's spent by the people who come to state parks to recreate, turns over several times in the communities where the parks are located and creates a tremendous economic boon to the towns around the state parks and to the entire state when you add it all up. Right now we have a serious problem with Kansas state parks and crumbling infrastructure. These facilities were built and developed 30, 40 years ago now, and they are beginning to crumble and some serious effort needs to be placed to actually restore some of the infrastructure, some of the plumbing, electrical systems, that sort of thing and to renovate the buildings, roads, other facilities.

Tom Warner: And as our population continues to grow and gets more and more urbanized, there's fewer grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles that have property out there that you can go out and recreate on. So that means we're going to have more and more pressure come on to our precious state park grounds.

NARRATOR: TOM WARNER IS VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE WILDLIFE AND PARKS COMMISSION. HE HEADED A TASK FORCE ESTABLISHED IN 1995 TO INVESTIGATE NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT THE KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE AND PARKS.

Tom: And we looked at different fee structures, we looked at taxes, we looked at the whole range of things and we came up with a recommendation. We knew that we needed at least $10 million in money immediately just for the state park infrastructure repair and improvement and that was one of our recommendations, that they come up with at least a bond initiative to come up with $10 million right up on the front end.

Rebecca: As the surrounding landscape -- that is, the landscape around parks and preserves and public lands -- becomes more and more re-worked with the trappings of modern culture -- and by that I mean everything from highways, urban sprawl, landfills, military bases, agricultural fields, livestock operations. Those kinds of human constructs that we impose on the natural landscape. Parks and preserves then become more distinct from the surrounding area. And this, I think, increases their social value because the contrast gives us greater reason to think about what parks and preserves, public lands, reflect in terms of the advance of civilization.