A Safari in Kansas
This month’s post is a little different than my normal history stuff. That said, there is a history component to the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute, KS, which my daughter Lexi and I visited in March. The website, www.safarimuseum.com tells you that the museum is ranked as the #1 museum in Kansas and one of the top 10 historic sites to visit for Valentines Day. I’m not sure how the Valentines Day thing ties in, but it was an interesting museum.
This trip had some current relevance for me, as my wife Jill and I, just returned a few weeks ago from a safari in Kenya. The trip was amazing and if you ever have a chance, I highly recommend a safari vacation. My wife is the animal person, but I really enjoyed it. We saw so many cool things and the fact that the entire vacation was so different from normal vacations made it something we will never forget. Our Safari will be remembered as one of our best vacations ever. If you have any safari planning questions feel free to reach out to me, I’ll give you any advice that I can. I will also include a few of our pictures with this post, just because they are so cool.
Chanute, Kansas, is about 2 hours south of Kansas City down 169 highway. The big question everyone probably has is “why is there a “Safari Museum” in Chanute, Kansas?” The answer to that is that a Chanute resident, Osa Johnson and her husband Martin were some of the first people to travel to the uncivilized parts of Africa and the South Pacific beginning around 1917. The museum tells the story of Osa and Martin’s courtship and life, as well as their travels after they were married. The couple published 20 books, 9 feature films, tons of images and other film shorts that told the world about these other parts of the world.
Martin Johnson, who grew up in Lincoln and Independence, Kansas, married a very short, under 5 foot tall, 16-year-old, Osa Johnson in 1910. Prior to that Martin had a dream to travel and began that dream by traveling as a cook with famous adventurer, Jack London. After their marriage the couple began their own travel career traveling to locations all over the South Pacific and Africa.
The tiny Osa, (her shoes in the museum look like children’s) was a crack shot with a rifle, acted as security for the couple while Martin would use his camera to film and take pictures of the things that they witnessed along the way. The films that they produced were the first images that most American’s had ever seen of the natives from those parts of the world. It is kind of interesting to see a video showing Osa shooting a charging lion. Interesting only because we would never see that on film today as the shooter would be pilloried as a terrorist and probably never allowed to hold a gun again. This was a different time, and those types of “concerns” were not in place in the 1920s. The money raised from these films, which were wildly popular in the movie houses of the day, and the books they wrote were used to fund their travels throughout their lives.
On one of their first trips, they were captured in the Solomon Islands by a tribe of cannibals called the Big Nambas. The appearance of a British Gunboat somehow saved the couple and allowed them to get away. Amazingly, the couple went back and found the same tribe a few years later to show them the video they had taken on the first trip. The tribe obviously was fascinated by the technology, but also a bit freaked out when they saw tribe members in the movie who had passed away in between the visits. Its rather amazing to watch the tribe viewing the video. Their reactions are incredible to see.
The Johnson’s traveled regularly until 1936. On January 12, 1937, they were traveling on a small plane headed to Las Vegas when the plane crashed. Martin Johnson died. Osa was severely injured but would eventually recover and continue to give speeches about their adventures from a wheelchair. She eventually passed away of a heart attack in 1953.
The museum is excellent, and admission is free until at least January 2025. I would recommend verifying the hours before traveling to Chanute. The museum boasts many displays of African and South Pacific masks and other artifacts. The top floor of the museum tells the story of Osa and Martin complete with many images and videos taken by the adventurers during their travels. You can also see many of these items on their website, if you just want to get a taste of what you might see on-site. Overall, a nice little side trip if you are looking to get out and explore.