photo by: Elvyn Jones

The Governor's Tourism Award in the foreground and photograph were presented in October to Paul Bahnmaier, president of the Lecompton Historical Society, for work with the Kansas Territorial Capital Museum and promoting tourism in Lecompton.

The striking contemporary design of the newest item on view at Lecompton’s Territorial Capital Museum is at odds with the antique furnishings that fill the first-floor room in which it is displayed.

The translucent piece sits on a wooden base with brass plate identifying it as the Governor’s Tourism Award. Below that is a line reading “Paul Bahnmaier” and another reading “Lecompton.”

The award was presented to Bahnmaier, president of the Lecompton Historical Society and curator of the museum, on Oct. 23 at the 2019 Kansas Tourism Conference in Mulvane.

Despite the presence of his name on the award and Gov. Laura Kelly singling out his contribution to Kansas tourism in a video played during the award ceremony, Bahnmaier has no intention of taking it home to display on his mantel. The award will remain in the museum as a tribute to the many people who help keep the museum open, he said.

“This award is for all the members of the Lecompton Historical Society and volunteers the past 40 years who cataloged the collection, cleaned, put up Christmas trees and did the other things that allow us to tell Lecompton’s story,” he said.

That story is of the Bleeding Kansas territorial days of the late 1850s, when Lecompton first vied to become the capital of a slave state Kansas and then remained a hub after Kansas joined the Union in 1861.

Elaine Boose, Lecompton Historical Society secretary, said historical society volunteers do keep the museum going, but it was appropriate that the award was given to Bahnmaier, who has been president of the historical society since he retired from teaching in 2001.

“All the members and volunteers help keep this place running, but you need a leader to get all going in one direction,” she said. “Paul’s our leader.”

Boose said Bahnmaier does everything from taking phone calls to scheduling tours for schools or civic groups and playing roles in the reenactments performed in the museum’s second-floor theater to helping set up seasonal displays, such as the current antique Christmas tree display that will remain on view through Jan. 1.

From 8,000 to 9,000 people visit the museum annually, Bahnmaier said. The visitors come from Kansas, across the United States and overseas.

“My favorite visitor was a professor from Russia,” he said. “He said he taught American history in Russia and wanted to come see what he was teaching his students.”

All those visitors provide benefits to Lecompton as tourists shop, eat and buy fuel in town, Boose said. That, in turn, makes Bahnmaier appreciated beyond the doors of the museum.

“Let’s just say Paul has a nickname, and that is ‘Mr. Lecompton,'” she said.