40 years ago: Tongie committee seeks funding for park

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 28, 1974:

A project was under way in Tonganoxie to commemorate the town’s namesake with a roadside park, and it was now possible that the upcoming national bicentennial would be folded in with the project. Mrs. Ida Herrington, one of the local promoters of the project, was planning to send letters to area residents asking them to attend the first meeting of the bicentennial committee. One of the meeting attendees would then travel to Wichita to explain the Chief Tonganoxie project to the State bicentennial commission in hopes of obtaining recognition and possibly funding. Drawings for the Chief Tonganoxie memorial had already been prepared, and donations to the project fund had grown to $700, Herrington said. Project backers were now hoping to raise at least $3,000 for the planned park, which was to be located at the triangular intersection of U.S. 24-40 and County Road 6 on the southern edge of town.