The Fick Fossil and History Museum in Kansas
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A Fun and Educational Place to visit in Oakley, Kansas
If you take Exit # 76 on I-70 in Kansas and head south, you will find a charming museum in Oakley. Oakley is a small town, so you should have no trouble finding the Fick Fossil and History Museum.
If you do get lost, just look for the library. It shares the building with the natural history museum.
The Fick Museum has a number of interesting large dinosaur fossils from Kansas, many old tools, mineral specimens, and shell & mineral folk art. Most of the exhibits have more info about who contributed them than about the exhibits - which is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it is quite interesting to see who the folks are that chose to live way out here. It is, also, interesting to see what the locals did to occupy their time in this seemingly lonely state!
The Fick Museum's small gift shop offers rocks, minerals, fossils, books, and jewelry. Prices in the gift shop start at less than a quarter.
The Fick Fossil and History Museum is open seven days a week in summer, with shorter hours in winter. There is a link to this Kansas history museum website below; it has more information and better quality photos of the exhibits. My iPhone took "passable" photographs, but no one would want to copy them.
[All photos taken on our iPhone in 2009]
What Mrs. Fick did to occupy her time on the plains of Kansas:
She used whatever was handy to make works of "folk" art.
Most of the folk art in this museum was created by Mrs. Vi Fick.
Her Image is to the right.
She evidently had a lot of time to create these pieces - or she never slept. I am sure that her life was quite full.
One of Mrs. Fick's "Paintings":
This Folk Art hangs on the wall in this natural history museum in the Sunflower State.
Mrs. Fick, the artist, used whatever she could find to create her "folk art". If you look closely you might see some sea shells embedded in the paintings. Yes, Kansas was once under water.
Another of Mrs. Fick's creations on display in this Kansas history museum:
Natural History Museum you must see!
Even though Kansas is the "Sunflower State" Mrs. Fick did not focus on that flower in her folk art.
What Mrs. Fick used in her Fossil Paintings:
Flowers from the Past!
As stated before, Kansas was under an inland sea in the prehistoric past. Here are several sites that will confirm it:
'Shell Crusher' Shark Swam Cretaceous Kansas.
Oceans of Kansas Palentology
Fossil Specimen discovered on the Bonner Ranch in Logan County, Kansas.
Others donated works of 'folk art" to the Fick Museum, too.
Closer look at the above Diorama in the Fick History Museum:
Ride 'Em Cowboy!
25 Miles South of Oakley, Kansas and the Fick Museum
You can go see where Mrs. Fick might have found her fossils at Monument Rocks!
The "Chalk Pyramids and Monument Rocks are names for the same group of rock outcroppings, near US-83 in western Kansas. There are signs at the turn off (6 miles of gravel roads). You can see the rocks in the distance from the highway if you know where to look.
Like the Castle Rock Badlands, the Monument Rocks are on private range land, but thanks to the owners, open to the public. The United States Department of the Interior has designated the Chalk Pyramids as a National Natural Landmark.
The 70 feet tall sedimentary formations of Niobrara Chalk were created 80 million years ago when this area was part of a vast inland sea."
[Information from the Kansas Travel website.]
The slide show below was found on Flickr; the images are from user earlycj5 using Creative Commons license.
To find out more about the Fick Fossil and History Museum in Kansas:
Find a book about fossils!
A good book is hard to beat for learning something!
A Mini Tour of Kansas:
There are better quality pictures of the Fick Fossil and History Museum to be found on thisphoto set from ruralocity on Flickr. There are images of other nearby locales on the slide show, too. You can click on the show to go to reveal more information about each image. You can also control the speed of the display.
Enjoy! The short mini trip to Kansas!
Driving Across Kansas!
There is more than you can see!
I used to think that the drive through Kansas on I-70 was the dullest trip in the world. Then I started to read some of the road signs and talked my husband into taking some side trips.
This book seems to have made some of the same discoveries that I did. If you take the advice here, you can find out why Dorothy thought there was "No Place Like Home [in Kansas]!"
Driving Across Kansas (PB)
Amazon Price: $8.00 (as of 02/14/2012)
Happy Kansas Day!
This sunflower day is in January.
(image is from Skip To My Lou website)
Find out so much more about the state of Kansas:
Comments Welcomed!
They don't even have to be about Kansas!
Anyone can make a comment about this travel lens below. You do not have to be a member of Squidoo. However, think about joining. That way you can give "star ratings" to the articles and maybe write some of your own. It is easy! Click here to find out just how easy it is.
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marsha32
Jun 4, 2010 @ 8:58 am | delete
- sorry, the click out was from my Dillon's Nature Center lens.
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marsha32
Jun 4, 2010 @ 8:57 am | delete
- great lens! I happened to run across you while looking at the stats of my Cosmosphere lens and seeing that one visit had clicked over from this lens.
I've actually not heard of this museum until now.
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momto4
Sep 29, 2009 @ 10:21 pm | delete
- Great lens! Looks like an interesting place to visit! 5*'s!
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Ramkitten
Sep 22, 2009 @ 2:52 pm | delete
- I've found some real gems in small towns--wonderful art galleries and small museums. I don't know if I'll be driving through Kansas any time soon, but if I were passing through Oakley, I'd definitely make a stop to check this out. I'll bet they never expected to be featured on Squidoo.
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bdkz
Sep 21, 2009 @ 7:44 pm | delete
- Nice!
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RocketMoms Love to Travel
They even go to other places besides Oakley, Kansas
Find out where the RocketMoms go. There are links to the two states on the east and west sides of Kansas along I-70. You might just have to go through them to get to the Fick Museum!
Hope you have fun on your journey.
If you want to know who the RocketMoms are click here to read about them.
About the author of this lens (article):
by Mickie_G
I am a wife, mother, & grandmother who also happens to be a Baby Boomer. I am also trying to find my place in the world. So who isn't? more »
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