At Weeks End
Mid-July 1954 was hot as blue blazes, but not too hot for a knot of kids to covey up at Dick Davis house most afternoons and traipse off to Humboldts Walter Johnson Field for a game of Indian ball.
A chain securing an iron gate on the west end had enough slack for us to squeeze through.
The old diamond, with wood bleachers and lights perched on steel towers, was a dust pit; rain was scarce that month. Running across the field raised brownish clouds.
After a couple of hours, wed adjourn to the Harwood Brothers service station four blocks away, where pony bottles of soda pop, at 5 cents each, were immersed in water nearly frozen by floating blocks of ice.
Then, it was back home and strategy sessions to decide how a gang of 11-year-olds would occupy themselves that evening, which frequently meant congregating on blankets spread over a yard. No air-conditioning led us to get our shut-eye outdoors.
THATS JUST a short episode in the life of Walter Johnson Field, a Works Progress Administration project of the Great Depression.
When USD 258 abandoned the football field after the 2013 season for the new sports complex east of Humboldt, many with a fondness for local history worried what would happen. They feared the baseball diamond, football field and historic rock wall and stadium would be uprooted for some modern adventure, to put a good chunk of real estate back on the tax rolls.
One of those kids who played ball there in the halcyon days of the 1950s, Walter Wulf Jr., stepped in, and on his behalf Monarch Cement Company acquired the field for a pittance from the school district.
Before Wulf came to the rescue, Gary Larson, a Humboldt High grad and southeast Kansas director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, proposed locating the student groups headquarters there. Cost killed that idea.
Now, Wulf and Monarch, with the help of several locals, are in the midst of planning how to maintain the landmarks presence in a useful manner.
This summer the more modern press box atop the stadium, which looks as much out of place as a diamond necklace on a goats neck, will be removed, with the help of a crane on loan from Monarch. The structure may be converted to a concession stand or restrooms, which fell on hard times as the football fields use waned.
The rock wall also has a few places needing attention. Monarch employees will be dispatched to do repairs.
The first event in the fields new life will be an old-time baseball game on July 7, featuring a Topeka team dating, at least by name, to 1886 that has played in Humboldt before and a new entry to the sport from Branson, Mo.
The WPA project that created the field, bounded by its imposing rock wall, was completed in 1936. What lies ahead is anyones guess, and, as a member of the planning committee, Id be delighted to hear some ideas.
We often are quick to raze what we have and replace with new structures. Thankfully that wont happen with Walter Johnson Field, yet another object of preservation in Humboldts march into the future with a keen eye on the past.
