By Norman Carr
If The Palace exists, it is somewhere near Wilson, the "Czech Capital of Kansas."
The Palace by Norman Carr, 2023, digital photograph - 10.5 x 16.25 inches
Kansas is not a topographical pancake; on a summer's day I drove toward one of its relatively steep hills. My windows down, I cruised through sun-drenched rolling wheat fields on an outing with my camera.
The prelude to The Palace (a local name for the once stately mansion) was antiphonal: the song of Meadowlark, a melody from a flute and the distant roar of circus animals. Soft notes from the flute and trumpeting of an elephant crackled in-and-out like radio static. Reception in rural Kansas can be erratic, but I distinctly heard a ringmaster inviting "...children of all ages!" in an Eastern European language.
I crested the hill to see a tightrope walker perched between cottonwood trees. Behind her were two clowns arguing. Behind them I caught my first glimpse of The Palace.
The mansion's original owners, second generation Czech immigrants, had fallen on hard times in the late 1920s. The farm failed. The widow was forced to take in boarders. When there were no takers, some say ghosts moved in.
Were there always ghosts and visions over this hill? Pre-Columbian Pawnee legend includes descriptions of white people in medieval dress at the site. In the mid-1800s, buffalo hunters and army scouts reported fleeting glimpses of lions, monkeys, and other exotic animals unknown to the region. In the 1930s, rumors and whispers provoked speculation about how the farmer's wife became a widow and what became of him.
In The Palace windows I saw flickers of movement: one split second an acrobat then a juggler; a lovely maiden then a carnival strongman; a trapeze artist then a jester. Interspersed were ominous flashes of lightening and thunderclaps, a sprinting coyote, a medicine man, shadowy figures - children of all ages. I stopped, got out, and when my car door shut, they all disappeared.
Back at home I uploaded the images of this picturesque ruin. On my monitor the mansion's windows still flickered with acrobats, jugglers, coyotes, shadowy figures, and a beautiful damsel. Once the images subsided, I hit the Print button and watched this photograph emerge from my printer.
*All photo montage images were take by the photographer and assembled in Publisher.
They are (left to right):
Doorway lanterns - Chinatown, San Francisco
Cat and stone steps - Trogir, Croatia
Circus sign - Budapest
Ringmaster - Budapest
Medieval damsel - Tallinn, Estonia
Moon - Wichita, Kansas; Gull - Plum Island, Massachusetts
Beauty with rose (window display) - Brussels
Medieval recorder player - Tallinn, Estonia
Mannequins - Collioure, France
The Palace is Featured In: Voices of the Midwest
Exhibition Dates: May 9 - June 20, 2024
Kavanagh Gallery of Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St. Charles, Illinois
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