KANOPOLIS — Two long-time, hard-working and quite commendable members of the Ellsworth County Historical Society — Melvin McCary and Greg Heller — have been selected to be the grand marshals for the annual Fort Harker Days parade Saturday morning in downtown Kanopolis.

“It’s an honor to be selected for the grand marshal,” Heller said. “I’m just here doing my job. I don’t think I’m doing anything special to deserve that, but it’s an honor.”

Heller has been the historian and interpretive guide at the Fort Harker Guard House Museum for the past nine years.

“I was really surprised and very humbled,” McCary said.

McCary is a historical society board member with a great interest in the history of Fort Harker and has, for the last 16 years, volunteered to help keep the complex of buildings in shape for future generations.

“I do it for the love of history,” he said. “I’ve been interested in history all of my life.”

“As far as the upkeep on all the buildings at both museum complexes, he’s the main man,” Heller said. “If it wasn’t for him, it’s hard telling what these buildings would look like.”

“Both Greg and Melvin are integral members of the ECHS family,” ECHS Board President Cynthia Edgerle said. “Greg serves as curator at the Fort Harker Complex. Providing expert historical information and interesting tours are Greg’s forte. Melvin is more of a behind-the-scenes guy. He makes sure all of our buildings are maintained and safe for the public to view. He is especially partial to the Fort Harker Complex and that period of Ellsworth County’s history.”

Heller said he couldn’t do his job at Fort Harker without people like McCary and the rest of the historical society board of directors.

“I get a tremendous amount of support from these guys, and that’s what it takes,” he said.

In 2008, McCary and another long-time member of the historical society, Donald J. Urbanek, began restoring the Commanding Officers Quarters at Fort Harker. They finished that project in 2010, and many more projects after.

“He (Urbanek) got me interested in it,” McCary said. “He bought my first membership to be on the historical society board and the rest is history.”

In addition to restoring the Commanding Officers Quarters, McCary and Urbanek restored a historic Army wagon.

“It used to sit over here at the guard house and got all rotted sitting outside. We completely restored it, and it is inside the Morton building now in Ellsworth to protect it,” McCary said.

Urbanek died in 2020.

Preserving history

According to Heller, it’s all about preserving history.

“Here, I present the history of Fort Harker — the good, the bad, the ugly — as it really was, especially during the Indian Wars,” Heller said. “It’s something that we need to do, not only as a community, but as a nation, to preserve the history and tell the history as it really was.”

Heller said the best part of his job is meeting people and teaching the history of Fort Harker.

“Once they leave here, they have a whole new perspective of the Old West,” he said.

Heller said he has had heard people who are self-proclaimed experts on Gen. George A. Custer or the Indian Wars say at the end of the tour, “I didn’t know that.”

“So, it’s a very rewarding job,” he said.

McCary and Heller both said Fort Harker Days means a lot to the community each year.

“Everybody looks forward to the hamburger feed (sponsored by ECHS Friday, July 14)” McCary said. “Local people enjoy the turtle races and all the festivities in the park. Something is going on all the time during the day and into the evening. They have an excellent parade here — especially the grand marshals.”

“I think it’s an opportunity for folks to get out and have a shindig in the park,” Heller said. “In the past, we’ve had all the buildings and the museum open where they can come through at no charge. We’ve got people coming through the museum who live here in Kanopolis or have lived here all of their lives and this is the first time they’ve come through the museum and are amazed at what we’ve got.”

Haunted Harker

Several years back, Heller started the Haunted Fort Harker Ghost Tours.

“There are two things people are really interested in during this time frame — frontier forts and the paranormal,” Heller said, “and we have a frontier fort that is haunted.”

After an initial investigation, officials with Old School Paranormal, Hays, comfirmed there is paranormal activity at Fort Harker.

“With that, I suggested we ought to start doing a Fort Harker haunted ghost tour,” Heller said. “We did that for about five years. It’s a way for us to make some money and it’s also a way for those people who are interested in the paranormal to get involved in an actual ghost hunt.”

Heller said he had always heard about experiences other people had with the paranormal and he, as well, has had many experiences with the paranormal while working in the Guard House Museum.

These experiences range from hearing distinct footsteps from someone in hard-soled boots walking up and down the upstairs hallway at the Guard House to what Heller described as very deep, guttural growling underneath the floor boards.

“It sounded like two boar coons fighting,” he said.

Heller has even watched as a “Welcome to Kanopolis and Fort Harker” sign in the Guard House actually turned on its own to face his office.

“The spirits, or whatever you want to call them, are here. They’re not benevolent, they’re mischievous, “he said.

“It’s very interesting,” McCary said. “I did see something, but I didn’t hear anything.”

McCary said he was visiting one day with Janice Essick on the back porch of the Commanding Officers Quarters when he caught a glimpse of a figure walking in front of the window on the inside of the COQ then it disappeared.

“There was nobody around,” he said. “The building was locked.”

McCary said it looked like a young gentleman.

“He wasn’t in uniform or nothing,” he said. “Just a person.”

That was the only paranormal experience McCary has had at the fort.

Heller said with the assistance of Picht Paranormal, Fort Scott, haunted ghost tours of Fort Harker will soon start again. The first is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 28.

The tour, which costs $45 per person, is limited to 14 people, which is divided into two teams with seven guests, two investigators and a staff member on each team.

“It gives you a more personalized experience,” Heller said.

An Ongoing Mission

With the ongoing mission of preserving the past and telling the history of Fort Harker always in mind, the need for new faces to step up and carry on becomes more and more important.

Heller said there has been some interest shown by a couple of history teachers, one in Topeka and one in Manhattan, to volunteer to work at Fort Harker in their off-time.

“So, we do have some younger people who are interested,” Heller said. “The problem is they’re not here locally.”

Heller said he will keep trying to find young people locally who want to volunteer.

“The problem with the younger people is they’re not into history like we are,” he said. “I’ll admit myself I hated history when I was in high school and college. It wasn’t until I retired from the police department down in Texas that I really got interested in history.”

“We’ve got a few new members on our board now who have volunteered to help,” McCary said. “It has sure made a difference. They’re not real young, they’re all retired guys. Whenever I need some help on something out here they’re pretty quick to volunteer to help me.”

Both Heller and McCary feel the historial society and its museums have a strong future.

“I think if we can keep a good, strong board on the historical society that doesn’t think more of one of these facilities as they do the other, they look at all of them as the same and understand the historical significance not only to Ellsworth County but to Central Kansas and the country, I think it will continue to go as long as we can keep younger people involved,” Heller said.

“We’ve got a real good society board right now, and we’re keeping stuff fixed up,” McCary said. “I think there’s a good future yet.”

For a complete schedule of events for this Friday and Saturday’s Fort Harker Days celebration, please see Pages B1-2.