Chase County’s main streets spotlighted in 2023 calendar

    Now in its seventh year, it’s become a tradition for the Chase County Historical Society to produce a calendar with its pages dedicated to the county’s history.
    The 2023 calendar edition is now out, making its first appearance last weekend at the Vision of Trees in Champion.
    Historical Society President Charley Colton said they sold about 35 calendars at the two-day event.
    The 2023 edition spotlights main streets in Chase County cities and villages with Imperial, Wauneta, Champion, Enders and Lamar all represented.
    There are also a number of historical events listed on the day they happened throughout the calendar, along with business advertising of old.
    Each year, Colton said there are usually a couple of photographs they use for the monthly pages that pique his interest.
    A photo of Broadway Street in Imperial is one of them. It graces the page for June.
    It’s a 1947 photo of Imperial’s main street looking south from 7th Street. Colton said he was able to determine the year it was taken after googling the movie advertised on the Imperial’s Star Theatre marquee, “Born for Speed,” which is visible in the photograph.
    He also can point out most of the businesses in the photo, many now changed. One of the buildings on the west side of the street shows Farmers & Merchants Bank, which had been located at 12th and Broadway originally but owners moved the building to between 6th and 7th Streets when the town moved south, Colton said.
    “It’s always fun to do the research to find out more about a photo,” he said.
    Another interesting one, he said, is the photo used for October, featuring the Chautauqua held at the Wauneta Lake in 1908, hosting “the largest crowd in Chase County history to this point,”
    Wauneta used to have a man-made lake, he said, on the southeast side of town. It was gone by the 1920s, he believes.
    He’s disappointed not more main street photos of Lamar are available. He said the museum only has about five in their records, and have used some of those on previous calendars.
    One hundred calendars will be for sale at $20 each.
    Colton noted it’s not a money-maker for the Historical Society.
    “We do it to get our historical photos out and get people excited about the history of Chase County,” Colton said.
    It allows area residents to see some of the photos they have at the museum, most of which are stored inside file cabinets for preservation, he added.
    Samie Johnson did all the prep work and design, and they were printed at The Imperial Republican, Colton noted.
    People can purchase calendars in Imperial at Hill’s Family Foods, Super Foods or the Lied Imperial Public Library.
    In Wauneta, they are for sale at Walgren’s Super Market.
    They can also be acquired  through contact with any of the Historical Society board members—Colton, 308-883-8584, Becky Carman, Diann Schilke, Manette Brown, Jeannine Cox, Vicky Beard or Kelen Fortkamp.
    In the past six years, the calendar themes have included town views, schools, churches, events, farmsteads/ranches and barns.
    Colton is already working on the 2024 calendar which will feature dams and lakes in the county.