Roxie Yonkey, a best-selling author, will discuss her newest book Secret Kansas: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, in Franklin June 23 and in Pittsburg June 24.
Franklin
Yonkey will be at Miners Hall Museum, 701 S. Broadway St., Franklin, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, June 23.
Topics: The Amazon Army, women’s movement to improve American mine wages and safety, December 1921. Nearly 50 women were arrested and fined during a march. Eventually one of the marcher’s sons became a congressman and reformed mining safety. The author will discuss the remnants of the Stone City mining camp where 20 miners died in a 1916 explosion and a vault still recalls the tragic event.
Pittsburg
She will present at Books and Burrow, 212 S. Broadway, Pittsburg from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 24.
Topics: The octagonal vegetarians of the Octagon City (1856-1858) failed utopia near Humboldt; and The “Bloody Benders,” the vanishing serial killers that operated a cabin inn along the Osage Mission Trail near Cherryvale (circa.1872-1873).
Both events
Patrons may buy an advance copy from Books and Burrow in Pittsburg to read along with her. She will have copies available during the Franklin event.
“I’m excited to share Crawford County’s rich mining history in Secret Kansas at Miner’s Hall Museum,” Yonkey said. “The topics I will share in Pittsburg are among the book’s most fascinating stories.”
The song “Home on the Range” is 150 years old this year, so both presentations begin with its story. At both events, she will also present how J.A. Wayland, Fred Warren and
staff built a socialist newspaper in Girard “An Appeal to Reason” and “The Little Blue Books” that by 1913 had national circulations exceeding 750,000. Leading American socialists regularly submitted essays. Upton Sinclair’s classic novel about unsanitary and dangerous conditions in Chicago meatpacking plants, The Jungle, was first published as short-lived series in “The Appeal.”
How well do you know Kansas? Two rounds of Kansas trivia will show what you know. The winner will receive a pack of naturally filtered Longford Water.
The book tour is also a research opportunity for Yonkey’s upcoming books, Historic Kansas Roadsides and Amazing Kansas. The author is also preparing another book featuring famous Kansas women. During the presentation, patrons may advise her who she should include.
Secret Kansas is Yonkey’s third published book. She wrote the bestseller 100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die and the Kansas section of the Midwest Road Trip Adventures book. The Midwest authors have released their new Midwest State Park Adventures, which will also be on sale. Yonkey has written about Kansas for over 30 years and amassed numerous awards.
She has set additional book events throughout the state. Find them at RoxieontheRoad.com/Schedule.
