Rex Buchanan discusses the book "Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills," on Nov.18, 2019. He co-authored the book with Burke Griggs and Joshua Svaty.

Carved deep into sandstone, primitive drawings have survived for centuries in the outcroppings, bluffs and caves of Kansas.

Now many of those carvings can be viewed in the book “Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills,” by Rex C. Buchanan, Burke W. Griggs and Joshua L. Svaty. Recently published by the University Press of Kansas, the book is filled with color photographs by Griggs and explores many of the carvings found in central Kansas.

Petroglyph drawings, or carvings in rock, are more often associated with the American Southwest. However, growing up in central Kansas, both Buchanan and Svaty always knew carvings existed on land they explored.

About a decade ago, when Buchanan was with the Kansas Geological Survey and Svaty was a Kansas legislator, they met during a KGS tour of some petroglyphs in central Kansas.

“We chose Presidents Day to look at the sights and discovered we both had an outsized affection for the state,” Svaty said, speaking to the Journal-World by phone. After the first tour, every Presidents Day Buchanan and Svaty would organize tours. New petroglyphs came to light, and their discovery spread by word of mouth.

Over the ensuing years, their curiosity turned into a passion. When Buchanan retired from KGS, he contacted Svaty and Griggs to see if they were interested in putting together a book of some of the sites in Ellsworth, Rice and Russell counties. That was three years ago. The book became a labor of love. Royalties will go to the Coronado Quivira Museum in Lyons, the Ellsworth County Historical Society and the Native American Rights Fund.

On a recent afternoon, Buchanan flipped through the oversized hardback book. While the book describes carvings that date back to the 1700s, he said, it isn’t an exhaustive study of petroglyphs nor is it about interpreting the carvings.

An image by Burke W. Griggs, from the book “Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills,” depicts a figure found in Ellsworth County.

“Interpreting them is fraught with difficulty. Everybody walks up to these things and wants to know the story. But there are limits to what we know,” Buchanan said.

The new book is based on archaeological and anthropological literature, and the authors also spoke to many Native Americans during their research. Some things they are certain about. The carvings are associated with the Wichita and the Pawnee tribes, who traveled extensively through central Kansas.

“These are not doodles,” Buchanan said. “They were not done by someone waiting out a rainstorm in a cave; that is abundantly clear. These are indicative of a relationship to the world around them. And they were done by people that had particular standing: shamans.”

Researching the book brought surprises. Buchanan remembers one breathtaking carving in Dakota sandstone in Ellsworth County.

“It was so spectacular,” Buchanan said. “It blew me away.” The huge carving included a large bison and several human figures, including one carrying a shield.

But a chunk was missing from the sandstone, apparently removed by someone who walked away with a petroglyph. Other sites have been vandalized with contemporary graffiti. The bulk of the sites included in the book are on private property. Most landowners restrict access because of concerns about liability, trespassing and damage to the features.

The book does not offer any specific locations, just general descriptions such as a township in a county. Had they been writing a guidebook, Buchanan doesn’t think they would have gotten permission to enter the private property.

“Some of the petroglyphs have been vandalized dramatically over the years,” Buchanan said.

The authors are adamant that this is not a guidebook.

“This is not the kind of book you are going to pick up and say, ‘I have a free Saturday and I am going out to look at these things,'” Buchanan said.

The book’s purpose was to document the petroglyphs, bring them to the public’s attention through the photographs and raise awareness that these petroglyphs exist in Kansas. Through the photos, the authors hope that readers will think of the people who created these designs centuries ago.

The authors will be discussing the book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Free State Brewing Company, 636 Massachusetts St., during Science on Tap, a monthly science cafe organized by the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. The Raven Book Store will be on hand with copies of the book for sale.

The authors will also be discussing the book at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.