Sunburned

Title

Sunburned

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

It gets pretty hot on the Kansas prairie. It's always good to find shelter from the elements, especially the sun in the middle of summer.

An art form grew out of the uniqueness of the prairie land and the needs and inventiveness of early settlers, post rock cutting may be the one uniquely Kansas folk art.

In 1862 the Homestead Act opened the way for the settlement of the plains and people with varied backgrounds were drawn to the dream of relatively free land. Much of central Kansas was treeless creating numerous problems for early settlers one of which was finding a means by which to enclose portions of the free range.

The area known as "Post Rock Country" stretches for approximately 200 miles from the Nebraska border on the north to Dodge City on the south. The limestone that is found in this area comes from the uppermost bed of the Greenhorn Formation. It was out of necessity that settlers in the late 1800's began turning back the sod and cutting posts from the layer of rock that lay underneath. By the mid-1880's limestone fence posts were in general use because of the widespread use of barbed wire.

At the time of settlement, most of the communities in central Kansas had at least one man who had learned masonry in the Old Country. Since post rock cutting was generally a community task, others learned the technique as well and in this way the traditional skills have been passed down for several generations.

The limestone itself is found close to the surface and is usually uniform in thickness. One of its greatest attractions is that it is soft enough to shape when freshly quarried but hardens with exposure to the air. The feather and wedge method is most commonly used to remove the stone. A rather modest set of tools is required, often made by the local blacksmith. A drill, a hammer, a chisel, and a set of feathers and wedges are needed. After the soil is removed, holes are drilled into the limestone about eight inches apart. Feathers and wedges are placed in the holes and the wedge is hit with the hammer to split the rock.

After the rock is quarried it must be moved to the site of the fence. The limestone posts are then set in the ground about 10 steps or more apart and prepared for a wire fence. Several methods were used but perhaps the most popular was to notch the post's edges to hold the barbed wire after which smooth wire is wrapped around the post to hold the barbed wire in place.

Not only fence posts but dwellings as well were made from the Kansas limestone. This photograph of a limestone house was made along Interstate 70 in central Kansas.

Some digital effects were applied to the original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Your finished photograph will not contain the Fine Art America watermark.

Image copyright 2021 Jon Burch Photography.

Uploaded

August 28th, 2021

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